October 11, 2023, 3:46 PM ET
Family of 20-year-old boy found dead in Israel says his death is ‘a loss to humanity’
From CNN’s Sabrina Souza
Itai Grisco
Provided by the Grisko family
A New Jersey-born Israeli soldier was killed in an attack on Israel, his family told CNN.
Itai’s aunt Rachel Grisco, who now lives in Los Angeles, said soldiers knocked on Itai Grisco’s door at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday night and told them her son had died.
The family offered hope and prayers for four days. “No one knew what was happening to him,” she said.
His family was worried that he might be hurt because he was American, and they posted carefully on social media “for fear of writing the wrong thing.”
“They’ll know he’s a soldier,” said Zehaba Grisko, a cousin of Itai’s father.
Rachel is in constant contact with Itai’s father in Israel. She was on the phone with him while he answered the knocks on the door.
“We knew the soldiers were coming to the house then,” Rachel said.
Zehava learned of her relative’s death from Rachel at a meeting at the Jewish Community Center in Tenafly, New Jersey.
Rachel said, “I can’t stop crying since yesterday. I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.”
Zehaba said Itai wasn’t supposed to be there at the time of Saturday’s attack, but one of his friends asked him to come on shift that day.
“He was taking care of them, he was fighting, he was taking care of his wounded fellow soldiers. When he was attacked, he called his cousin and said, ‘I’m taking care of the wounded soldiers.’ “I said,” Rachel said. But there are 30 soldiers around me and I don’t know what to do. ”
She described her nephew as a “very nice kid” who was smart, polite and “kind and generous” and said he “never complained about anything in the military.”
“Those who escaped from there said they fought until the last moment,” Zehaba said. He said. “They fought like lions.”
Rachel said her family was devastated.
“He’s only 20 years old. He’s not going to have a girlfriend, he’s not going to have kids, he’s not going to have a wedding, and it’s over,” Rachel said, crying. “This family has a huge hole in their hearts and they’re not going to recover from it.”
Rachel and Zehava added: “The loss of this boy is a loss to humanity, because he could have accomplished amazing things in his lifetime.”
Zehava said in Hebrew that they call Itai the best of the best.
“In Hebrew we said he was the salt of the earth.”
