"Yehuda! Come to dinner!"
"Wait, I just have to beat his queen!"
Yehuda loved to play chess. He was a champion player and competed in Olympic tournaments against famous chess players.
Yehuda bought his nephews a chess board for Rosh Hashanah, and made sure to teach them how to play correctly: "always guard the king, and think about what the opponent will do if you move your piece.”
On the morning of October 7th, Yehuda Natan Cohen, a Givati commando unit commander, was at home in the settlement of Shadmot Mehola. When he heard about what was happening in the south, he immediately felt the need to fulfill a mission, he quickly took off his white shirt, put on his uniform, and left, without even saying goodbye to his nephews.
On the way he picked up all of his soldiers in his unit and began to give orders where to go. Yehuda, the chess player, was used to anticipating and thinking several moves ahead: where his soldiers will come from, who will enter in front and who will hide behind.
The Givati commando unit under Yehuda's command entered Kibbutz Nahal Oz where there were dozens of terrorists. They successfully eliminated the terrorists and then proceeded going door to door calling out: "Open up, it's the IDF. We have come to save you!"
From one of the houses a person called out: "How do we know you are not Hamas?"
And Yehuda answered : "I'm Yehuda Cohen. Commander of the Givati commando unit, I've come to help you!"
"If you are a commander, tell me in what year the state was established?"
"1948"
"And who was the first prime minister?"
"David Ben Gurion"
"And who defeated Goliath?"
"David, King of Israel, from the tribe of Judah."
The door opened.
Later, when he spoke to his family, he spoke with complete humility. He told them that he and his soldiers were guarding the kibbutz and did not mention his many acts of heroism. It was the same when he carried the weapon belt on his shoulder - Yehuda used to carry the bag strap on his other shoulder to hide his ranks.
Later in the war Yehuda led his combat unit into Gaza and won many battles. On one of the days the unit stayed inside a certain house. Yehuda entered the house opposite them to make sure there was no danger. Upon entering, he found terrorists planning to blow up the house where his soldiers were staying . Yehuda entered into a battle with the terrorists but in the end he was killed. He still managed to call his soldiers who eliminated the terrorists. This is how the combat soldier Yehuda Cohen saved an entire unit of soldiers.
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