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Israel Mourns Murder of 21-Year-Old Soldier

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israelis are once again mourning the loss of a young husband and father, murdered Thursday evening in a supermarket where he, his wife, and four-month old daughter were buying groceries in preparation for Shabbat (the Sabbath).

Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, a staff sergeant in the IDF's Nahal Brigade, was not in uniform when his attackers fatally stabbed him multiple times in his upper body.

He was laid to rest at 8 a.m. Friday morning in Jerusalem's Mt. Herzl military cemetery, attended by hundreds of mourners.

Before the funeral ended, an Israeli Arab attacked two Border Policemen at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. The attacker, shot dead at the scene, was later identified as 20-year-old Mohammed Abu Khalaf from a predominantly Arab neighborhood in northern Jerusalem

An Arab woman, lightly wounded by shrapnel, was treated at the scene of the attack.

The Damascus Gate, used by both Arabs and Jews to enter the Old City, has been the scene of 11 terror attacks against Israelis since October.

Weissman's two teenage assailants, both 14 and residents of Beitunia on the outskirts of Ramallah, also attacked 36-year-old Avi Avital, who's listed in moderate condition at Hadassah Hospital's Mt. Scopus medical center.

Two Israeli shoppers armed with handguns managed to shoot and wound the two Arab youth, who entered the supermarket after a brief security check at the door.

A surveillance camera filmed the two teenagers roaming the aisles, presumably deciding who their victims would be.

One is being treated in Jerusalem's Sha'are Zedek Medical Center and the other at Hadassah Mt. Scopus, the same hospital where his victim is recovering. The other attacker reportedly died.

Weissman is survived by his wife, Yael, and infant daughter, his parents and three brothers.

Below is their wedding video, posted in March 2014.

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird's eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe's parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar's pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.