NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A family in Miami-Dade County was grieving after a 38-year-old father of four, a commander for the Israeli military, was killed during the Hamas attack.
Abraham Hankin, who has family in North Miami Beach, was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces as a captain in the elite special forces.
Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consulate general of Israel to Florida, Kansas, Missouri & Puerto Rico, said Hankin was his brother’s friend and was known as an exceptional warrior and friend.
“He lived like a hero and he died like a hero,” Elbaz-Starinsky said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis offered his condolences to the family and acknowledged the loss during his visit to Surfside on Tuesday.
“We too, pray for the family,” DeSantis said.
The fourth day of the conflict that has killed at least 1,600 people continued with more airstrikes.
Israeli-American reservists who live in South Florida have started to make their way back to Israel to help serve after the surprise attack on Saturday. There were some who were also planning to attend funerals before reporting to a military base.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced U.S. special operations forces were working with Israelis after the U.S. positioned the Ford carrier strike group in the far Eastern Mediterranean with warplanes, destroyers, and cruisers.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt announced they wanted to mediate an end to the war. The International Committee of the Red Cross announced efforts to mediate access to hostages and prisoners of war.
“It is horrific and deeply distressing to see images of those captured by Palestinian armed groups being ill-treated, as well as reports of killings and the desecration of their bodies,” Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.
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The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.