A nation in mourning: 12 soldiers killed in 2 days – 11 were buried on Sunday

At least twelve IDF soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, eight of them killed in the attack on the Namer (Leopard) APC in Rafah on Saturday. The weekend death toll is one of the highest since the war began.

The Israel Defense Forces said their preliminary investigations indicate that the APC was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from behind at a short distance. The anti-tank missile apparently struck explosives stored on the outside of the vehicle, causing a much larger explosion. The Israel Defense Forces is still investigating the incident.

Eleven funerals for the soldiers were held on Sunday. Most of the soldiers were killed in the APC explosion, two reserve soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza on Saturday, and one soldier, Sergeant Yair Roitman, who was injured in fighting five days earlier, died of his injuries on Saturday. Another soldier was killed in fighting in Rafah on Sunday.

Roitman was injured in the Explosion in a booby-trapped building Four more soldiers were killed and six others injured.

The first name of the eight soldiers killed in the APC incident was that of Captain Wassem Mahmoud, a Druze deputy commander. His village had postponed the start of the Eid al-Adha festival to hold his funeral.

Mahmoud had been fighting since the war broke out on October 7. His brother-in-law said Wassem was injured on October 7 but had not told his family. Sheikh Muwafak Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community, said Wassem returned to the front from the hospital “out of full faith and identification with the war aims.”

Four consecutive funerals were held at the Israeli cemetery on Mount Herzl. Three of the soldiers were killed in the APC explosion and the fourth, Elon Weiss, died in fighting in northern Gaza.

Two of those buried, Shalom Menachem and Elon Weiss, lived on the same street in Psagot, near the town of Bet El in Samaria. Menachem died in the APC incident, while Weiss was killed in the northern Gaza Strip.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attended the funeral of Weiss, a leading figure in his community and one of the oldest soldiers killed in the Gaza war. Weiss, who was 49 when he died, was the father of seven children and recently became a grandfather.

Weiss was killed by an explosive device aimed at the tank he was riding in. Another reservist, Captain Eitan Koplovich, 28, was killed in the same explosion that seriously wounded two other soldiers.

So far, 311 Israeli fighters have been killed in operations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground offensive.