Avni (Stein), Ilan

Ilan, son of Leah and Bezalel, was born on August 18, 1943 in Kibbutz Gaaton. Ilan was one of the first kibbutz children. On the eve of the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the women and children, residents of the Western Galilee, were evacuated to Kibbutz Kedma near Netanya. He attended primary school and high school in Neot Mordechai. He was loved and accepted by the children’s company and excelled at organizing games and contests. He was a sports fan, especially soccer. The occupation of sports rejected other pursuits and hobbies: painting and music. A few years after graduating from high school, the kibbutz secretariat allowed him to study at the Wingate Institute for Physical Education at the Wingate Institute. Ilan was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in mid-November 1961 and was assigned to the Armored Corps, and after completing basic training, he took part in a training course for Sherman tanks and Amkas tanks. After his discharge from the regular army service, he returned to the kibbutz and married his classmate Dina, who fought at the beginning of the Six-Day War on the Sinai front and at the end of the Golan Heights. A few weeks before the Yom Kippur War broke out, he and his wife tried to try an independent way of life in a different environment. A physical education teacher at the Mikveh Israel agricultural school where he lived with Dina and his two sons, Gilad and Itai, for a month until the war broke out, and his pride in the boys was boundless and they filled his thoughts until the last moment. 22.10.1973), a few hours before the cease-fire went into effect, he was hit and killed at the Butzer outpost, opposite an alliance near the bitter lake, where he fought with his comrades and was hit by an anti-tank missile. He was brought to eternal rest in the Neot Mordechai cemetery. He left behind a wife and two sons, a father, a mother, two brothers and a sister. After his fall, he was promoted to First Sergeant. The commander of his company, Amitzur, said about him: “Ilan can be said without hesitation that he was the number one in the company.”