From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Reservist eulogized for desire to take revenge against Gazans, setting home on fire to ‘boost morale’
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During the recent funeral of an IDF reservist who was killed fighting in Lebanon, his loved ones eulogized him as someone who was determined to take revenge against Gazans, even women and children, and who allegedly set a home in the Strip on fire without authorization from his superiors in order to cheer up his fellow soldiers.
“You entered Gaza (after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught) to take revenge — as much as possible. [Against] women, children — everyone you saw. As much as possible. That’s what you wanted,” said Uriah Ben-Natan, the brother of 22-year-old Sgt. First Class (res.) Shuvael Ben-Natan, from the northern West Bank settlement of Rehelim.
Clips from the controversial eulogies have been picked up by left-wing media watchdog The Seventh Eye, which criticizes Israeli media outlets for mostly not including them in their coverage of Ben-Natan’s funeral in what it claims is an extension of an effort to hide or downplay alleged IDF war crimes in Gaza.
Ben-Natan was killed along with three others during a clash with Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon on Wednesday. Earlier in the war, though, he fought in Gaza as well.
“You were the happiest and biggest goofball in the platoon. We realized this for the first time when you set a house on fire without approval in order to boost morale,” said one of his fellow soldiers in a subsequent eulogy at the funeral.
Ben-Natan’s father David referenced his son’s arrest last year for shooting dead a 40-year-old Palestinian man in front of his wife and children while they were harvesting olives in the West Bank.
Ben-Natan claimed he was acting in self-defense after Palestinians from the area attacked him. The local Palestinians from the northern West Bank village of As-Sawiya, in turn, claimed that settlers had been trying to prevent them from harvesting their olives and that Ben-Natan had shot Bilal Salah in cold blood.
Ben-Natan was indicted, but his father said at the funeral that the case against him was closed. However, The Seventh Eye reports that the IDF says the investigation hasn’t been completed or handed to the Military Advocate General, meaning it can’t have been closed.
Despite having been severely wronged, Ben-Natan put what happened behind him and decided that he was still going to enlist after October 7, his father claimed at the funeral.
“I want to be with the Jews in their war,” his father recalled him having said.
התקשורת הישראלית סיקרה את ההספדים בהלוויתו של חייל צה"ל שובאל בן-נתן, אולם השמיטה את דברי אחיו על הכוונה להשמדת עם והקריאה לרצח נשים וילדים:
"אתה נכנסת לעזה בשביל לנקום, כמה שיותר, נשים, ילדים, כל מי שראית, כמה שיותר, זה מה שרצית".
"בעזרת השם, שכל עם ישראל יזכה לנקום את הנקמה… pic.twitter.com/3a574A7hRV
— העין השביעית (@the7i) October 26, 2024
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