ABC | Allyson Horn and Orly Halpern in Beit Shemesh, Israel | 2.1.24
An Australian man has been killed while fighting with an Israeli armoured brigade in southern Gaza.
Reserves Captain Lior Sivan, 32, was serving as a tank commander when he was killed on December 19.
He had been called up by the Israeli Defense Forces hours after the October 7 Hamas ground attack on southern Israel and had only left the Gaza Strip briefly a few times since then.
Captain Sivan was awaiting his leave to be with his wife, Liav, who is due to give birth to their daughter next week.
The couple also has a two-year-old son.
His father Dan Sivan said his son was not a fighter by nature but had wanted to protect Israel.
“Even though my son loved life, creation, nature and peace, he saw it as a very important task to defend the country and the people and was called to a reservist on the 7th of October, because he realised, like all of us, that we can only defend ourselves, no one can do it for us,” Mr Sivan said.
Captain Sivan has become the first Australian to be killed while fighting for Israel against Hamas inside Gaza.