Omer Balva, Israeli Reservist From Maryland, Is Killed Near Lebanon Border

Before Mr. Balva left for Israel about a week ago, he stopped in Maryland and spent some time with Mr. Missner, who said that his friend’s top concern was making sure his loved ones were not too worried. Mr. Balva’s parents were already in Israel when he arrived and he spent two days with them before he was sent to a military base, Mr. Missner said.

“He died fighting for the people that he loved and a country that he loved,” Mr. Missner said.

On Sunday, Mr. Missner and his family watched a livestream of Mr. Balva’s funeral in Israel. Thousands of people attended, he said, and the speakers included Mr. Balva’s parents, his three siblings and his girlfriend.

Mr. Balva graduated from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, outside Washington, in 2019. The school said in a statement on Instagram that Mr. Balva was “an unabashed advocate for the State of Israel.”

In a 2018 school presentation, Mr. Balva described his family’s long history with Israel and said that his parents had moved to the United States in 1996 for business reasons. He wrote in the presentation that he hoped to move to Israel as an adult and to raise his children there.

In 2019, the year Mr. Balva left for Israel and began his compulsory military service, he wrote a letter to Mr. Missner. “I want you to know,” he wrote, “that every time I’m sad I go to this one thought of me and you at 24 or 25 with our families on vacation, the thought of us with wives and children we love and are able to support always brings a smile to my face.”

Since Hamas gunmen surged into Israel in a meticulously organized attack on Oct. 7, more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, most in the initial attack, and more than 200 have been kidnapped.

The death toll in Gaza from Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign has risen to at least 4,385, and there have been more than 13,500 injuries, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. More than 60 percent of those killed in the Gaza Strip are women and children, the United Nations said Saturday, citing figures from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.