The names of three soldiers who fell in battle in Gaza were cleared for publication on Monday morning: Sergeant Major (res.) Neriya Shaer, Sergeant Binyamin Yehoshua Needham, and Sergeant First Class (res.) Ben Zussman.
Ben Zussman was a professional table tennis player. His club, Hapoel Jerusalem, lamented his loss: "A major tragedy! With great pain and a broken heart, Ben Zussman, a player in the club, the salt of the earth, a hero of Israel, the best of the best, fell in battle in Gaza."
His aunt wrote: "Our beloved nephew. Beautiful and brave, the best of the best - there is no limit to the grief."
Zussman was the fifth alumnus of the Himmelfarb religious high school in Jerusalem to fall since the war began. One of his friends eulogized him online: "He was a man of humor, a man of hard work; he always worked hard no matter what the task was. Yesterday, while talking to the mother of my friend SFC Shahar Friedman OBM, she told me the difficult news. Ben Zussman was a good friend of mine and of Shahar, who was killed. With this, the number of my friends who were killed since the war began rises to five. May his memory be blessed."
Ben Zussman will be laid to rest on Monday at 12:00 at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.