Sacramento grandmother mourns grandson who was killed by Hamas

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Grandmother Brenda Wolfson is mourning the loss of her 20-year-old grandson, who was killed by Hamas terrorists who stormed his military base.

Wolfson, who lives in Sacramento, told TV station KCRA3 that Yannai Kaminka was part of a search and rescue unit in the Israeli army and was stationed at Zikim Training Base, south of the city of Ashkelon. 

Wolfson said Kaminka played a large role in protecting the base and the nearby community when 40 to 50 Hamas militants stormed the base on Oct. 7.

"All of the recruits on that base were saved. Plus, behind the base was a kibbutz, one of these small, kind of rural communities, but… everybody survived," Wolfson told KCRA. "At least [Kaminka] died a hero, and he saved so many lives."

Wolfson said she got a WhatsApp message from her daughter, Kaminka’s mother, notifying her of her grandson’s death.

"There on my cellphone were six words that I’ll never forget: ‘He was killed. Come to Israel,’" Wolfson said.

Wolfson traveled to Israel for Kaminka’s funeral and met his colleagues who shared how her grandson’s actions kept so many others alive. 

One young woman told her that her grandson saved her life after he dragged her to safety and bandaged her head wound.

 Wolfson recalled a specific conversation she had with a young woman and her mother.

"’And I said to the mother and the girl, ‘Live a good life for our grandson,’ and that’s really the comfort is that knowing so many peoples’ lives were saved," Wolfson told KCRA. 

KCRA reported this story.