Fallen IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Simon Shlomov. Source: X/Twitter.

The latest soldier to fall in the war in Gaza was a new immigrant from Kazakhstan, it was reported on Monday. Known as a lone soldier, Master Sergeant Simon Shlomov, 20, immigrated while still in high school as part of a program that allows teenagers to move and start a life in Israel.

The lone soldier label applies to recruits who serve with no parental support in Israel. This includes Israeli natives who are orphans or have no ties to their parents, constituting some 48 percent of all lone soldiers. The rest include recruits who made aliyah while their parents live abroad.

The head of the program that he participated in, Yoram Panias, told Israeli media “It is simply incomprehensible that Shlomov was killed in Gaza. We are all shocked and pained here, and above all we cannot digest the heavy disaster that has befallen us. Simon came to Israel as a lone soldier, he arrived to us to study in the village and we immediately fell in love with him. He smiled, always helped everyone, and above all he wanted to succeed. His father came to Israel and all the money he saved from hard work at our farm in the village and from working on vacations in hotels in Eilat, he would send to his mother in Kazakhstan.”

An only child, Panias said Simon “explained to us that he came to Israel to be here in Israel in a combat unit and enlisted in the paratroopers.”

The mayor of Kiryat Bialik, where Simon lived, said “The city is in pain over the death of the late Sergeant Simon Shlomov, a resident of our city, who was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip, 20 years old. I send my condolences to the Shlomov family and bow my head in pain for the fall of a warrior who gave his life in a just military campaign to defend the State of Israel.”

Other teachers and friends spoke to the media, saying Simon “loved the people of Israel and the State of Israel, he left everything to come to Israel and enlist in the paratroopers and to serve our beloved country.” Another said “He always had a smile on his face and he knew how to get along anywhere.”

Shlomov’ friend and classmate, Boris Donavetsky, also a lone soldier, perished in December during the war.

Shlomov’s funeral is set to occur as soon as his mother arrives in Israel.