Gottlieb, Matan

Matan, son of Ruchama and Shmuel Gottleib, was born in 1993 in Rishon LeZion. Matan was born on the eve of the holiday of the giving of the Torah, Shavuot, and hence his name. On the 24th of November 2011, he joined the Paratroopers Brigade. During his army service, he stood out as a calm and supportive soldier who helped everyone. Matan was a man of peace. He told his parents that during the Shuvu Achim operation, the soldiers had to enter the houses of Palestinians in order to carry out searches, and he felt very uncomfortable, with frightened little children hiding behind their mothers in each house. Matan and his teammates treated the families with compassion and humanity; if they took clothes out of the closet, they put them back in the place, and each vessel was lifted gently and they were careful not to break them.
On the 23rd day of Operation Tzuk Eitan, during a search for a tunnel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, the booby trapped building of the UNRWA clinic exploded and collapsed on the soldiers. Matan fell on 3 Av, July 30, 2014. He was twenty-one when he fell. Matan was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Rishon Letzion. Survived by his parents and two brothers.