Hundreds Bid Farewell to Druze Reservist Bassel Suweid, Killed in Southern Lebanon

Hundreds attended the funeral on Thursday of Reserve Master Sgt. Bassel Suweid of Pekiin, who was killed when an army fuel truck overturned in southern Lebanon near Misgav Am. He was 32. Family members, friends and fellow soldiers gathered at the village's community hall to accompany him on his final journey.

Suweid was remembered as someone who stepped forward whenever help was needed. His uncle, Zaki Suweid, said, "There are people who do not wait to be called, they simply come. Bassel was exactly like that." He said Suweid helped the wounded and the families of the children killed in the Majdal Shams disaster, did not stand by when Druze in Syria's al-Suwayda and the Golan villages needed assistance, and went to reserve duty a day after October 7.

According to his family, Suweid served in Gaza, Lebanon and other places where a soldier was needed to move forward without hesitation. The Druze spiritual leader, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, said at the burial, "We prayed there would not be more military funerals ... Bassel fell not far from here, on the battlefield in southern Lebanon, after hundreds of reserve days since October 7." He added that giving was synonymous with Suweid.

Lotfi Nasr al-Din, director general of the Druze Yad Labanim organization, said Suweid was the 450th Druze fallen soldier in Israel's history. Interior and Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer also attended and called the loss "a loss for all of the State of Israel," saying the country is paying a heavy price in a long war to defend the Galilee, the north and Israel. Druze residents of the Golan villages in Syria, some of whom knew Suweid, sent condolences, and Nader Halabi, from the Majdal Shams wounded families, wrote that Suweid stayed beside them in hospital and shared their pain after the rocket strike on the children.