Two Israeli soldiers were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist on Thursday, and a third is in critical condition after being hit by the gunfire.
The terrorist shot at the soldiers at a Givat Assaf outpost before fleeing the scene. Sgt. Yosef Cohen, 19, and Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef, 20, were identified as the slain soldiers.
Cohen’s stepfather, Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav, told The Jerusalem Post that Cohen had said during his last Shabbat, “I thank God for the merit he has given me to defend the Jewish people with my body.”
“Those were the last words he said here in our house,” Meirav said. “What a soul he was. That was the essence of the child.”
Mor Yosef was scheduled to go home on Thursday, but he volunteered to serve in order to give other soldiers some time off.
“He insisted on doing combat service, despite the situation in Israel,” Mor Yosef’s uncle, Sammy, told reporters. “He enjoyed his service, volunteered and gave it all.”
The IDF reportedly believes that both the Thursday shooting and the shooting on Sunday in the Ofra community that resulted in seven Israelis injured – including a pregnant woman who was forced to give premature birth to a baby that died days later – were both conducted by a Hamas terror cell.
“In the past few days a Hamas terror group cell managed to harm us and exact from us a heavy price,” IDF Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan told the Times of Israel. “We will pursue them and settle the score with this cell.”
