Binyamin Needham: British teenager killed in Gaza while fighting for IDF
Binyamin Needham, a 19-year-old British national, has been killed in Gaza while fighting for the IDF.
Mr Needham, who had dual nationality, moved to Israel with his family 10 years ago, and is understood to be the second British national after Nathanel Young to have been killed while serving in the IDF since the 7 October attacks.
The soldier was born in England and was the youngest of five children, Israeli newspaper Haaretz said.
Mr Needham, who was from Zichron Yaakov, fought with the 601st Battalion of the Combat Engineering Corps, the Times of Israel said.
Israeli officials said he had only been in the Gaza Strip for two days when he was killed in action and celebrated his birthday two weeks ago, according to The Mirror.
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His sister, Orli Ferris, told the paper he was “a wonderful, wonderful brother”.
“We loved him with all our hearts and we always will. He will be missed by all of us and so many others, but we will always make sure we remember him in our hearts,” she said.
“Nothing will be the same now, but we are all very proud of what he did and he was also proud of what he was doing.
“He had just finished his apprenticeship and was doing his professional training.
“We don’t know the exact details of what happened but he was only in Gaza for two days. He went in on Friday and died Sunday.”
The teenager was one of three soldiers who died in combat operations in Gaza on Sunday, the IDF said on Monday.
The other two soldiers were named as Neriya Shaer and Ben Zussman.
More than 15,500 Palestinians and more than 1,200 Israelis have been reported killed in the fighting since 7 October, according to the UN.
The IDF has said 401 Israeli soldiers have been killed, 75 of those during the ground offensive inside Gaza.