JERUSALEM A crowd estimated at 30,000 attended the funeral for Max Steinberg, an American lone soldier killed in Gaza.
The service for Steinberg, 24, a southern California native who was killed last week in a Hamas attack on his armored personnel carrier, was held July 23 at the Har Herzl military cemetery.
Steinbergs parents and siblings traveled to Israel for the funeral. His mother, Evie, told Israels Channel 2 upon her arrival at Ben Gurion Airport that her son was a hero.
The US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said in a Facebook post that the number of mourners was an amazing show of support and love, which gave real comfort to his wonderful family. Shapiro had spoken at the funeral.
Steinberg was riding in the armored vehicle with six other members of the Golani Brigade when it was attacked by Hamas explosives.
He was a sharpshooter in the elite brigade who had enlisted in the army several months after visiting Israel for the first time on a Birthright trip.
On July 20, family, friends and community members gathered for an impromptu memorial service at a park near the Steinbergs home in the San Fernando Valley.
Read related news coverage, “Two Americans killed in Gaza“
Funerals for two other lone soldiers killed in the same attack were held last week.
Jordan Bensemhoun, 22, was buried in Ashkelons military cemetery on July 22. Some 6,000 mourners, mostly from the large French-Israeli community, attended the service for the 22-year-old Lyon native despite warnings against large gatherings in the southern city, which is under frequent rocket fire from Gaza.
On July 21, some 20,000 mourners attended the service for Sean Carmeli, 21, at the Sde Yehoshua military cemetery in Haifa. Social media sites had called on Israelis to attend the funeral for the Texas native, as Carmeli did not have much family in Israel.
Maccabi Haifa, Carmelis favorite soccer team, asked its fans on Facebook to accompany him on his final road and represent us as one family.
