(JNS.org) Two American citizens – 24-year-old Max Steinberg of Los Angeles, Calif. and 21-year-old Nissim Sean Carmeli of South Padre Island, Tex. – were among the 13 Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the Golani Brigade who were killed in the Shujaiyya quarter of Gaza on Sunday, July 20.

“He was completely dedicated and committed to serving the country of Israel,” Max’s father, Stuart Steinberg, told the Associated Press. “He was focused, he was clear in what the mission was, and he was dedicated to the work he needed to be doing.”

In response to a widespread social media campaign to honor a fallen soldier, some 20,000 people crowded the military cemetery in Haifa on Monday evening for the funeral of Staff Sgt. Carmeli.

Since Carmeli lived in Texas for most of his life, and his parents split their time between Israel and the U.S., his friends were concerned his funeral would be sparsely attended and decided to reach out to Israelis around the country. The 21-year-old Golani Brigade soldier rooted for the Maccabi Haifa soccer team, whose fans shared the details of his funeral online, encouraging people to attend.

Rabbi Yonatan Simony, the Carmeli family’s local rabbi, told The Algemeiner, “The whole community feels like they lost their own son.” South Padre Island has a Jewish population of 75.