Miriam Peretz, the iconic public figure and educator who lost her two sons while they were serving in the IDF, found out that Khaled Mansour, the senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander killed by the IDF, was responsible for the operation that led to the killing of her son Eliraz in 2010.
The IDF announced the elimination of Khaled Mansour, who was a senior member of the Islamic Jihad and the commander of the southern region of Gaza on behalf of the organization on Saturday. Over the years, he was involved in a series of attacks against Israel.
Mansour was eliminated on the day Perez welcomed her grandson to the world, and just a day after the birthday of Eliraz, who would have been 44-years-old this year.
"There is peace in the heart when you know that you will not be harmed by him again. I see Eliraz's children before my eyes, I want them to know that the man who killed their father and caused so much destruction is gone. We have reached closure with the villain, there is no greater correction," the Israel Prize laureate told Army Radio.
Peretz lost her two sons, Uriel and Eliraz, during their service in the IDF. Her eldest son, Staff Sgt. Uriel Peretz, was killed in 1998 when he was 22-years-old, during an ambush in southern Lebanon.
In March 2010, her second son, Maj. Eliraz, was killed during combat with a terrorist cell in the Gaza Strip. Following their deaths, Peretz dedicated her life to passing on the Jewish and Zionist heritage, and lectures to Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora, teenagers, and IDF soldiers.
Peretz, who participated in a Tisha Be'av panel on Saturday evening, held in Modi'in, said that "It is a difficult day, I am dealing with personal and national grief. I have no joy and no exultation, but this is something that strengthens my spirit and my confidence in the Israel Defense Forces, which in the end reaches the enemy."
"It is a difficult day, I am dealing with personal and national grief. I have no joy and no exultation, but this is something that strengthens my spirit and my confidence in the Israel Defense Forces, which in the end reaches the enemy."
Mirian Peretz
Presidential election
Last year, Peretz ran for president of Israel backed by a wave of public sympathy. during the elections, she received 26 of the Knesset members' votes and eventually lost to Yitzhak Herzog.
The race for the presidency, which is usually characterized by intrigues and political tensions, was conducted with an air of mutual respect and appreciation.