Border officer hailed Israeli hero after she died storming hideout

Teenage Israeli is hailed a hero after being fatally shot while saving her settlement from Hamas gunmen: 19-year-old border guard dies after killing three terrorists in gun battle

• Ravit Hana Assayag was shot in the mouth during a firefight with a gang
• Israel Palestine news LIVE: IDF continues to strike Gaza with air strikes as troops massed on the border ‘prepare to execute mission’

A brave Israeli woman has been hailed a hero after she died in a hail of bullets trying to defend her settlement from Hamas gunmen.

Ravit Hana Assayag was shot in the mouth during a firefight with a heavily armed gang who had stormed an Israeli settlement in the south of the country in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ravit, 19, an officer in Israel’s Border Force, was fatally wounded when she courageously rushed into a wooden shed when the Palestinian militants were hiding.

The teenager had cut short a holiday in New York to return to Israel to fight terrorists in the village of Yakhini, less than ten miles from the border with Gaza.

At her funeral on Monday night in Ashdod, southern Israel, her commanding officer praised the teenage officer for her bravery.

Ravit Hana Assayag beside a skyline. Ravit was shot in the mouth during a firefight with a heavily armed gang who had stormed an Israeli settlement in the south of the country in the early hours of Saturday morning

Ravit doing target practice. Ravit, 19, an officer in Israel’s Border Force, was fatally wounded when she courageously rushed into a wooden shed when the Palestinian militants were hiding

Israeli officers fire back at a suspect at the area following the attacks of Hamas in Yakhini

Commander Baruch Honig told mourners: ‘Ravit insisted on going in first. She was killed but she saved the unit, she saved the operation.

‘We were in an olive grove and had been fighting for several hours. We shot eight of them. Ravit killed three.

‘We thought they were all dead. We did a sweep of the area and Ravit went to check a shed in the olive grove.

‘She insisted on going in first. She asked me to cover her. She was shot. But if she had not gone in there, he would have wiped us all out. She saved the unit.’

Just 72 hours earlier Ravit posed for a picture in Time Square where she was celebrating the Jewish festival of Sukkot – also known as the Feast of the Tabernacle – with her father Shimon.

Every year the pair would travel to the USA to sell the ritual fruits known as ‘etrog’ – called citron in English – to members of New York’s Jewish community.

Ravit Hana in the street at night. The teenager had cut short a holiday in New York to return to Israel to fight terrorists in the village of Yakhini, less than ten miles from the border with Gaza

Ravit posing on a sun lounger. At her funeral on Monday night in Ashdod, southern Israel, her commanding officer praised the teenage officer for her bravery

Ravit smiling in her uniform. Commander Baruch Honig told mourners: ‘Ravit insisted on going in first. She was killed but she saved the unit, she saved the operation’

But she insisted on returning to Israel three days before the end of the eight-day holiday to return to her post guarding the border with Gaza.

Speaking for the first time, her heartbroken father has told of her bravery and her devotion to her country.

READ MORE: Gaza ‘will soon be a tent city’ says Israeli official as IDF launches 250 airstrikes in one hour into ‘Nest of Terror’ and ‘infantry, artillery and 300,000 reservists’ mass on the border ‘ready to execute’ ground offensive 

Fighting back tears Shimon Assayag told MailOnline: ‘My daughter wanted to be a border guard.

‘I have brought up my children to do their duty for the nation.

‘However, she did not have to go into the military, she could have some other kind of national service.

‘But she insisted on in joining a combat unit. She wanted to protect our country, to protect Israel.’

Sitting on the floor of the family’s modest home in Ashdod, south of Tel Avi, Mr Assayag, 63, a businessman, told how she had urged his daughter to stay with him in New York and see out the religious holiday.

He said: ‘Every year I go to New York, to Brooklyn and take the etrog fruits for Sukkot, and Ravit often came with me.

‘But this year she told me she had to go back home. I said, “why don’t you don’t you stay until the end of Sukkot?”

‘But she insisted on going back. She told me; “Dad, I have another family now, their name is the Border Police. I have to get back to them.” In New York they called her the “Iron Woman”.’

He added: ‘She was so talented. She was only 19 but I no longer had to support her. She was a singer and song writer, she was a professional make-up artist. She had her whole life ahead of her.’

Ravit joined a combat unit of the Israeli Border Guard just nine months ago. She was the third of her siblings to join the Israeli military.

Eden Assayag, sister of Ravit Assayag, in the bedroom of the fallen relative 

Shimon Assayag, father of Ravit Assayag

Ruthie Assayag (mother) and Eden Assayag (sister) of Ravit 

Shimon Assiyag, father of Ravit Hana Assiyag

Her mother Ruthie told MailOnline: ‘I have three children in the military, including Ravit – the army, the navy, the air force.

‘Another [of my children] is supposed to be drafted in July. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that does not happen.

‘I told Ravit that she was putting herself in danger by joining that unit. But she wouldn’t listen.

‘She said: “People say I am strong, but how much of a hero can I be?'”

As relatives and friends gathered at the Assayag home to offer their condolences, members of her unit joined the mourners.

Ravit in front of a city skyline at night. Ravit insisted on returning to Israel three days before the end of the eight-day holiday of Sukkot from a trip to the US to return to her post guarding the border with Gaza

Ravit on the road of a city at night

Ravit and other border officers. Ravit joined a combat unit of the Israeli Border Guard just nine months ago. She was the third of her siblings to join the Israeli military

Israeli Border Guards colleagues of Ravit

Ravit in the city at night

Ravit on the road at night

Ravit’s father Shimon Assayag holding up a picture of her

Her brother Maor, who is serving in the Israeli Navy, said: ‘She never said a bad word against anyone. Even when police officers were being insulted, she refused to say a bad word. She never complained.’

Her sister Eden described the pictures that Ravit had put on her bedroom wall as her own ‘Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial’ – honouring the memories of Jews killed by their oppressors.

The bravery shown by Ravit and her comrades has been praised by an Israeli official who claimed they had prevented further deaths in the neighbouring settlement of Ofakim.

MP Almog Cohen said: ‘The Border Police of the southern district, if they were not there, we would count bodies here in Ofakim – in the hundreds.’

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