Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel / Flash 90
View of memorial candles marking the site of a terror attack on IDF soldiers at Armon HaNatziv Promenade in Jerusalem.

Thousands of people came to stand in solidarity at graveside with the families and friends of four Israeli officers who were killed Sunday in a truck ramming attack in Jerusalem. Shira Tzur, Shir Hajaj, Yael Yekutiel, and dual Israeli-American citizen Erez Orbach each were accompanied on their final journeys by hundreds of people.

Israel Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, and Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar, plus several Knesset members were present at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem to support the family of Shir Hajaj.

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Her sister Bar spoke to her, saying, “I’m sorry you didn’t get your life… From now on, all your beauty will be robbed in the sadness of your song.” (The word “shir” in Hebrew means “song.”)

IDF personnel gathered with family and friends at the military section of the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem to support the parents of Yael Yekutiel. Her father eulogized her as “a teacher, a soldier.”

Israeli-American officer Erez Orbach was accompanied to his final resting place at the Kfar Etzion cemetery by his family, and one of the rabbis at the yeshiva where he had studied.

Despite a health problem that initially excluded him from service, the soldier had fought until he was accepted, telling the IDF it was his “duty to serve.”

Hundreds also accompanied the family of Shira Tzur, from the city of Haifa, as she was taken to her final resting place in the city. Like her fellow officers, Second Lieutenant Tzur had been posthumously promoted. The 20-year-old officer began her military career in a pilots’ course before transferring to the unit in which she ended her life. She was known for always trying to make her environment “a better place,” her aunt told Ynet.


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.