Herzliya Mayor Yair Fischer paid tribute to Sgt. Maj. Yoav Klein, a Herzliya native and graduate of HaYovel High School who was killed in southern Lebanon. Fischer said the city received the news with “deep sorrow and great pain.”
In his statement, Fischer wrote, “Again the heart is broken.” He described Klein as a young man “with a whole future ahead of him,” saying that only three years ago he was still a student at the school.
Fischer also said Klein was a talented and beloved basketball player who grew up in the city and chose to serve in order “to defend the country and all of us.”
The mayor extended condolences to Klein’s parents, Eran and Einat, and to the rest of the family and his friends, saying he embraces them from afar.