The commanding officer of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, visited troops of the elite Golani brigade who lost nine of their own on Tuesday, including a forward commander and a beloved battalion commander.

As the Times of Israel noted, Israelis were heartbroken at the loss, which occurred after Hamas terrorists set two ambushes:

The initial force of four soldiers entered a cluster of three buildings — believed to have been abandoned — surrounding a courtyard, to carry out searches and found the entrance of a tunnel. As the troops entered one of the buildings, Hamas terrorists ambushed them, hurling grenades, detonating an explosive device, and opening fire on them.

All four soldiers were hit by the explosive inside the building, as gunfire continued from outside the structure.

At this stage, a second group of troops outside tried to reach them, but contact with the officer of the force was lost. Local commanders then initiated emergency procedures amid fears the soldiers could have been captured.

The 13th battalion commanding officer, Tomer Grinberg, was remembered fondly — especially for a recent speech he made, telling troops that future generations of Israelis would remember their sacrifices, as they remembered those of earlier soldiers:

Finkelman paid a special visit to the Golani brigade, and told them they were the “generation of victory,” not the “iPhone generation” (via Times of Israel):

Finkelman says that “yesterday you proved in practice that ‘After me’ is not a slogan” — a common Hebrew expression symbolizing a leader taking responsibility and leading from the front — “but an order for us commanders to lead forward at the head of the forces, even when there is a heavy, very heavy price.”

“We have great challenges ahead of us. We will continue to attack the enemy as we have done here in Shejaiya and in other places, and we will continue to lead forward as commanders,” he continues.

“You are the generation of victory. You prove it every day all day. We are all inspired by you and the spirit of Golani, which will continue. We will act and win,” Finkelman adds.

Finkelman also used the phrase “generation of victory” in a rousing speech to his troops on the eve of the Gaza invasion.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.