An off-duty soldier who was stabbed to death while trying to stop two young terrorist attackers at a supermarket near Ramallah was laid to rest at the Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Friday.
Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, a soldier in the Nahal brigade, was a resident of Ma’ale Michmas, which is close to the industrial zone where he was shopping with his wife Yael and their infant daughter.
At the funeral attended by hundreds of mourners, Yael described how she and her husband had been in another part of the store with their daughter Netta when the teenagers pulled out knives and people cried out. “I always knew that if something happened you would be the first person to respond,” she said.
Two terrorists, Omar Rimawi and Ihad Sabah, both 14 and from the nearby village of Beitunia, were seen on security cameras walking around the supermarket for more than 20 minutes before they selected their victims.
A second victim, whose name has not been released by authorities, is being treated for stab wounds at a Jerusalem hospital. The terrorists were shot by a civilian, who rushed to the scene, killing one and wounding the other.
Weissman was described by friends as a quiet, studious young man; an enthusiastic combat soldier; and a loving husband and father who attended high school in Jerusalem and a pre-military academy in Kfar Eldad, where he combined Torah study and preparation for the army.
He is the 30th Israeli to be killed in a series of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks since October.
Weissman is survived by his parents, his wife Yael, their 4-month-old daughter and four brothers.
Start a Discussion