IDF soldier killed in Beersheba attack laid to rest

Sergeant Omri Levy, an IDF soldier who was killed Sunday during a terror attack in the Beersheba central bus station, was laid to rest Monday afternoon in an emotional ceremony in his hometown of Sde Hemed, a moshav in central Israel.

Hundreds of soldiers, friends and family members were in attendance when Levi was buried alongside his father, Noam, who died three years ago of a sudden heart attack.

Mourners described the 19-year-old basketball enthusiast as honorable, driven and a natural leader.

Many praised him for acting as a father figure to his younger brothers, Yuval and Ro’i, following the death of their father.

“The attack took Omri as he was returning to the base from a medical checkup,” one of his fellow soldiers said. “It’s tragic that, owing to a twist of fate, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“A comrade in arms, whom we all saw as a brother, was taken from us,” he continued.

Other soldiers expressed their admiration of Levi for his willingness to serve in the IDF’s demanding Golani infantry brigade despite suffering from a medical condition and his despite his family circumstances.

“It’s hard to believe that this family has suffered so many tragedies in such a short period of time,” one of the family’s neighbors said during the ceremony.

“Sde Hemed is a small community, everyone knows everyone here, and we’ll all embrace the bereaved mother and brothers,” he added.

After the ceremony, the family played the song “Forever Young” by singer-songwriter Rami Kleinstein, a Hebrew version of the Bob Dylan ballad, whose lyrics are inscribed on his father’s tombstone.

Levi was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant.

He was killed on Sunday evening when Muhanad Alukabi, an Israeli Arab from a Bedouin village near Hura in the Negev, entered the Beersheba bus station armed with a pistol and knife, stabbed and killed the 19-year-old Levi, grabbed his rifle, and wounded 11 others, including four soldiers and four police officers.

An Eritrean asylum seeker was killed during the incident, after he was mistaken for a terrorist, shot by a security guard, and beaten to death by an enraged mob. He was named as 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum. The Eritrean Embassy in Tel Aviv has requested that his body be returned to his home for burial.