Tank commander killed in Lebanon was the namesake of his fallen friend’s daughter

A poignant story of battlefield friendship emerged after Lt. Col. Dor Ben Schimon, commander of the IDF’s 52nd Armored Battalion, was killed overnight Thursday-Friday in a tank explosion in southern Lebanon along with three other soldiers. Ben Schimon, 32, had taken command of the battalion only about two months ago.

His death hit especially hard because he had been closely tied to Maj. Guy Yaakov Nazri, 25, from Atlit, who was killed in combat in northern Gaza in October 2024 while serving as a company commander in the same battalion. When Ben Schimon’s daughter was born a year and four months ago, he and his wife Ariel named her Gaia, after Nazri. Nazri’s father, Mike, told ynet from abroad, “We are shattered.” He described Ben Schimon, known by the nickname “Dabbash,” as part of the family and said he had visited them many times, including on the eve of Memorial Day to stand at his son’s grave.

Nazri’s mother, Yael, said after Ben Schimon’s death, “I am broken. Guy’s commander, Dabbash, the commander of Battalion 52 who named his daughter Gaia, was killed in Lebanon. I cannot believe it, I am devastated.” Guy’s twin sister, Tamar, wrote that Ben Schimon had been Guy’s company commander when he was a young platoon commander, later became a close friend of the family, and had even added a crown drawing to the tattoo he made for Gaia, matching the Nazri family name.

The article also recalled comments Guy made months before his death during a talk with students in Haifa, where he said, “It is good to live for our country, and I am not here to die for our country.” He added that Israelis are there to fight and stay alive and intact, and that the nation, after hardship and collapse, gets back up stronger. Ben Schimon had written in his commander’s message when he took over Battalion 52 in April that he was joining its long legacy with a “huge sense of mission” and that the tank tracks of the unit leave a mark in every fighting sector.