Maj. (res.) Harel Birenstock and Chief Master Sgt. (res.) Tamir Vaknin, two reserve soldiers who fell in combat, were laid to rest Thursday evening, according to News 14 (Channel 14).
Maj. (res.) Harel Birenstock and Chief Master Sgt. (res.) Tamir Vaknin, two reserve soldiers of the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade, were laid to rest Thursday. Birenstock, a company commander from the community of Nokdim in Judea and Samaria, was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. Vaknin, a combat medic from Eilat, was also buried Thursday.
The two fell Wednesday in a Hezbollah booby-trapped house in southern Lebanon, as The Zioneer reported. The IDF announced their names early Thursday morning (00:10 Jerusalem). The incident was the first fatal encounter in the southern Lebanon sector in over two months and prompted an emergency security meeting convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Four other reserve soldiers were seriously wounded in the same blast.
At Thursday's funeral for Birenstock, family members delivered emotional eulogies. His widow vowed that the children would grow up in a happy home, and his mother said, 'Enough with this pain that tears the soul.' A fellow soldier recalled Birenstock telling his troops that this would be the last time they cross the border because they would not return without victory. A social media image of Birenstock's daughter at the grave was also shared.
The circumstances of the booby-trapped house remain under investigation. The status of the four wounded soldiers was not updated in later reports.
6 developments
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- StrongPresident Herzog mourns two fallen soldiers, hails them as 'heroes of Israel'
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