Industry. Damian Soból's funeral. A Polish volunteer died in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip

Damian Sobol's funeral celebrations began on Saturday with a rosary in the church of St. Józefa at ul. Saint Jan Nepomucen in Przemyśl. Then, just before Holy Mass. Dariusz Dudek, advisor to President Andrzej Duda, read a letter to the participants of the ceremony and presented the posthumously awarded Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta to the family of the deceased.

To say goodbye to the 35-year-old volunteer who died on April 1 this year, his relatives and city residents who did not know him but wanted to show him respect came to see him. – He was such a good boy. Always busy, always wanted to do something for others. I don't even know where he got it from, what it was about him that made it everywhere. He paid the highest price for his willingness to help, the price of his life – said Lucyna Szczurowska, Damian Soból's aunt, after the ceremony.

Other volunteers were also present at the funeral ceremony. Among them was Lucyna Drymajło, who met Damian while organizing help for refugees from Ukraine.

– An angel like Damian should stay with us on earth. They don't need any more in heaven, said the woman. She emphasized that Damian Soból was “friendly, cheerful and brave.” – My last memory of him is that he came to us and said he was going to Ukraine because he was needed there. I asked if he was not afraid and he said no. Because where there is love and empathy, there is no place for fear, she emphasized.

Mrs. Lucyna added that Damian Soból helped because he could not imagine being indifferent to evil.

– Once a person hugs a lost, terrified child fleeing from the war, when he feeds him, he gives him a toy and hope, because he will never be able to distance himself again – she emphasized.

Read also: He was killed in an Israeli attack. The last recording with the participation of a Pole

She also noted that she could not come to terms with what happened to the Polish volunteer in the Gaza Strip.

– A boy full of energy and love for other people became a target. They practically had a hunt for them there. This is simply shocking, she said.

Damian Soból was one of seven volunteers of the World Central Kitchen organization, which helped the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip. The volunteers drove in three marked cars. The crossing had previously been reported to the Israeli army. Despite this, the vehicles were attacked. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that a humanitarian convoy was attacked with three rockets.

Shortly after the attack, the head of Polish diplomacy, Radosław Sikorski, announced that the Israeli side took responsibility for the attack.

Aid workers were killed when their convoy was hit shortly after they were supervising the unloading of 100 tons of food brought by sea to the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army expressed “sadness” over the incident, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the event unintentional. Condolences flowed from, among others, from the president of Israel, and the army announced a thorough investigation.

Damian Soból became involved with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) organization in 2022, just after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine – his biography on the website of the World for Ukraine foundation, for which he spoke during last year's W4UA Summit, indicates. Initially, he was employed by WCK as a translator, and later, “due to his commitment”, he took up the position of emergency aid coordinator.

– (Damian) was great for everything. He was a man for every task. He solved every difficulty that arose. WCK noticed this and quickly promoted him – recalls in an interview with tvn24.pl the president of the Wolne Miasto Foundation, Mikołaj Rykowski, who has cooperated with the Pole many times in recent years

.As he describes, as part of his work for WCK, Damian Soból was not only involved in helping on the Polish-Ukrainian border, but also went on operations in Kiev, Lviv, Bucza and Kharkov. In February last year, when the earthquake hit Turkey, he went to Elbistan to help those affected by the element. Once there, he again “took the members of the Wolne Miasto Foundation under his wing.”

– In Turkey, we cooked 10,000 hot meals a day, even though we had no access to shops. Damian organized a lot of products for us. Thanks to him, we had how to cook and feed people. Whenever we had a problem, either with products or the winter weather, one phone call was enough and Damian was there in no time. He knew how to fix everything, how to organize everything, Rykowski said.