Supermarket stabbing victim's widow pleased soldiers will take guns home now

Yael Weissman’s husband rushed to confront terrorists unarmed; ‘the army knows what it’s doing,’ she says

The widow of slain off-duty soldier Tuvia Yanai Weissman said she does not blame anybody in Israel for the fact that her husband was barred from taking his army rifle on leave before he was stabbed to death at a West Bank supermarket on Thursday.

She said, however, that she welcomed the army’s new decision to let troops take their weapons home.

Weissman, 21, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Mikhmas, died of wounds sustained during the attack at a supermarket in the Sha’ar Binyamin Industrial Zone, located southeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. He heard screaming as the two 14-year-old Palestinian assailants began their attack, and rushed to the scene unarmed, his wife Yael said.

He was critically injured while shopping with Yael and their 4-month-old daughter Neta, and was buried in Jerusalem on Friday morning.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman with his wife Yael and four-month-old daughter. Weissman was stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists at a West Bank supermarket on February 18, 2016. (Facebook)

Weissman had been refused a request to take his weapon home. An IDF directive, which the Israel Defense Forces have since repealed, forbade soldiers going on leave for more than three days to take their guns with them.

“We have an army which knows what it’s doing, they know their work they know the rules well,” Yael Weissman told Channel 2 News on Tuesday.

“They know who to give weapons to and who not to. I rely on them 100 per cent.”

She said the thought had not crossed her mind that there was a miscalculation in refusing her husband his gun. But [I’m pleased that the decision [to allow soldiers to take their weapons on leave] was taken, and was taken quickly.”