Two Israeli soldiers were laid to rest Sunday, a day after an explosion killed two reconnaissance troops in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and a reservist died from his wounds, sustained a week earlier in a roadside bomb blast in the same city.
The soldiers killed Saturday evening were named by the IDF as Cpt. Amir Saad, 22, from Yanuh-Jat and Sgt. Inon Nuriel Vana, 20, from Kiryat Tiv’on. Both were in the Technology and Maintenance Corps, serving in the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit.
The reservist who succumbed to his wounds, 32-year-old Sgt. Maj. (res.) Bezalel Yehoshua Mosbacher, served in the 749th Combat Engineering Battalion. He and a second combat engineer were seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack on July 19, while driving a jeep in Khan Younis.
Saad was laid to rest Sunday in his Druze hometown of Yanuh-Jat, while Vana’s funeral was slated to take place on Monday at 11 a.m. The soldiers were inside a Namer armored personnel carrier that was hit by an explosive device during operations in Khan Younis, the IDF said.
“How difficult it is to stand here again, to once again lay a fallen IDF soldier to rest in the same place, and the same village,” said Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the head of Israel’s Druze community, during Saad’s funeral.
He remarked on the heavy price paid by Saad’s family, noting that the soldier’s cousin, Alim Saad, was killed by Hezbollah terrorists who infiltrated Israel from Lebanon on October 9, 2023, just two days into the war.
Tarif went on to call for a hostage deal and end to the fighting in Gaza. “In any situation and at any time, the pains of peace are preferable to the agonies of war,” he said, according to Walla.
“I hope and pray that an agreement will be reached in the south, that we will see the hostages return and that we can return to routine life in the country,” Tarif said, and offered his condolences to the families of Vana and Mosbacher.
Mosbacher, an IDF reservist who grew up in the Golan Heights’ Avnei Eitan and lived in Or Yehuda, a city near Tel Aviv, was buried Sunday at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
Mosbacher’s family shared that he was able to communicate during the last week of his life despite his severe injuries, and gave instructions on how to care for his infant daughter and wife, Maayan. He is survived by his parents, Yaakov and Hannah, and 10 siblings.
Shmuel, one of Mosbacher’s brothers, thanked him for “32 years of joy.”
“In the last week, you gave us instructions. What to do with Maayan [and] your daughter… We will take care of Maayan, Yaeli, and the baby on the way,” he vowed.
Yaakov, Mosbacher’s father, told the crowd of mourners that he had not prepared a speech, and went on to describe his son’s last days alive. “He parted from us quietly that week. He and God had come to terms a week earlier, and he gave him time. His [God’s] plan was fulfilled,” the grieving father said.
“Let’s hope there won’t be more problems in Israel… There is so much pain in this war,” he lamented. “The madmen that don’t understand what life is — let us hope that they wake up and understand that there is a nation here that understands and knows what it means to preserve life. This life is a gift. One has no right to treat it as if it’s something bought at the market.”
Mosbacher’s mother, Hannah, said that her late son “filled the world with so much light, joy, wisdom, and love.”
“In the end, you were also ready to give your life for the sake of your nation,” she eulogized. “My love for you is eternal. I wish you could have stayed here longer. I now have to give back to the Creator the greatest gift in the world and it’s hard. Love is eternal, and we are connected forever and ever.”