Slain Israeli Soldier Remembered as Beacon of 'Innocence and Love'
JERUSALEM, Israel - Thousands of Israelis on Thursday evening shed tears and mourned the death of a young soldier who was murdered in a terror attack that shocked the nation.
Corporal Dvir (Yehuda) Sorek was just days away from his 19th birthday when his body, riddled with stab wounds, was found at approximately 3 a.m. Thursday morning near a community in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank.
“Our dear and beloved Dvir, in a few days we were supposed to celebrate your 19th [birthday],” Yoav Sorek said at his son's funeral, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“I think of these 19 years and I can’t help but smile because your memory brings to mind a bright face, positive thought, innocence and love of humankind,” Sorek said.
19-year-old Corporal Dvir Sorek was stabbed and killed in a terrorist attack early this morning, while neither armed nor in uniform, close to the Yeshiva where he was studying.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 8, 2019
May his memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/JrJdlJGlUM
The mourners sang songs in Sorek's honor. Others held Israeli flags.
Sorek is the second man in his family to be killed in a terrorist attack in recent years. His grandfather, Rabbi Binyamin Herling, a Holocaust survivor, was also murdered in a terrorist attack in October 2000.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is conducting a massive manhunt to find whoever is responsible for Sorek's kidnapping and murder.
The army is investigating if he was kidnapped before being stabbed because they believe his body was discovered in a different location than where he was murdered.
Sorek went missing late Wednesday evening on his way back from Jerusalem to his yeshiva, a Jewish seminary school.
"He went to Jerusalem to buy gifts for his rabbis and on the way back there was an attack. He was found clutching the books that he'd bought," the principal of his seminary, Rabbi Shlomo Wilk, told Army Radio.
No Palestinian terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his sorrow over Sorek's death and vowed to avenge his murder.
"The security forces are currently in pursuit to apprehend the abhorrent terrorist and bring him to justice. On behalf of myself and the government, I send condolences to the family," he said in a statement.
He also stated the resolve of the people of Israel, “These vicious terrorists come to uproot and we come to plant. They come to destroy we come to build. Our hands will reach those who seek to harm us, we will strengthen our roots in our homeland."
