Haim understood immediately that his younger brother Sgt.-Maj. Shani Turgeman, 24, was in Wednesday’s attack along the Lebanese border even though the media released only sketchy details.
"I heard it was in the north. I knew where he was serving, so I knew it was him,‘ Haim told The Jerusalem Post. ’I called his cell phone a number of times and there was no answer. Then a recorded message said his phone was turned off." After that, there was nothing else to do, Haim said, but to wait for the phone call that he knew would come from the army telling him that his quiet, shy, artistic brother was one of eight soldiers killed that day.
The middle child of parents who immigrated from Morocco in the 1960s, Shani showed an interest in graphic art as a teen and worked for a local newspaper.
Shani had begun studying the subject at Sivan college following his return four months ago from a post-army trip to South America.
Haim said he last saw his brother two weeks ago before he left for reserve duty. It was a normal meeting, nothing special, said Haim, who added that Shani had been scheduled to finish his tour of duty later that day.
Instead of welcoming him back, his parents Albert and Marcel, along with Haim and younger sister Einav spent the day in the family’s Beit She’an home struggling to deal with the sudden loss.
The funeral is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday in the military cemetery in Beit She’an.
Esti heard only Wednesday night, when she was leaving the funeral of a friend, that her oldest son, Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, 19, was among the eight soldiers killed that day.
Her husband, Arieh, was notified by his longtime friend Motzi Dahmen, who is the head of the the regional council in the northern area of the Dead Sea.
Breaking into tears as he spoke to The Jerusalem Post, Dahmen said that Nimrod was was part of the rescue team sent to help the soldiers in the tank that had been attacked earlier in the day along the Lebanese border.
"He was a wonderful boy. He was very smart, you can’t believe how smart he was. He also excelled in athletics," said Dahmen who had known Nimrod since he was a baby.
Before he was drafted into the army, Nimrod spent a year doing helping local communities as National Service, said Dahmen.
Esti and Arieh were among the founding members of Kibbutz Mizpe Shalem where Nimrod was born and grew up, said Dahmen, who was helping the family by watching Nimrod’s nine-year-old brother.
The family is still reeling from the news and has not yet set a funeral time, he added.
