‘Fell in battle’ to be written on gravestone of off-duty soldier killed in stabbing

The Defense Ministry announces that Tuvia Weissman, an off-duty IDF soldier who was stabbed to death as he fought a knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist with his bare hands, is to be memorialized as having fallen in combat and not as a victim of terror.

“Fell in battle” will be written on Weissman’s grave, according to a recommendation of the army’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman with his wife Yael and four-month-old daughter. (Facebook)

Yanai Weissman’s widow, Yael Weissman, had protested a Defense Ministry decision to categorize her husband as a terror victim rather than as a soldier who fell during battle.

The couple and their baby were shopping at the Rami Levy supermarket in the Sha’ar Binyamin industrial park, north of Jerusalem, on February 18. They were on the far side of the supermarket when two Palestinian teenagers entered the store and began stabbing shoppers. Weissman, who was not armed, ran to help and was fatally stabbed. He was 21 years old.