Thousands accompanied Staff-Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, a Givati soldier killed in the shooting attack near Kedumim on Thursday, as he was laid to rest at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl on Friday.
Amir was buried next to Sgt. 1st Class David Yehuda Yitzhak, an Egoz Unit soldier killed in action earlier in the week during the operation in Jenin.
“Shilo, we stand here today shocked and pained by the terrible loss,”the commander of Sayeret Givati said in his eulogy of Amir. “Throughout your military service, you were always the first to volunteer. You were a man of truth, you said everything that was on your mind, and you carried out every task to the end with maturity. For your friends, you were a good friend, a conversationalist, loved by your friends; you were looking to give more.”
His commander continued that, “yesterday, even though you could have gone home, you preferred to go on the operational activity with your team. You strove for contact, and unfortunately, you fell in battle. May your soul be bound in life, I salute you for the last time.”
Amir’s brother also eulogized him, stating that “in these years I rediscovered you as a brother, a friend, a guide. Shiloni, we are separating from you today after you gave yourself up with a totality that is so Shilo in a mission for the values and the protection of the people and the land. Thank you for the time we had together, and if only we had merited more.”
Amir was planning on entering an advanced unit
Nitzan Aviran, the spokesperson of Kibbutz Meirav where Amir was from and a close friend of the family, said yesterday that “Shilo loved the army very much... He had already planned to continue his service and wanted to be in the security services. Only two weeks ago he contacted someone who would help him enter one of the advanced units.”
Aviran added that Amir constantly sent messages to his parents, and told them everything he did in the service.
Amir was killed on Thursday by a gunman who shot at him and three other soldiers who approached the van that had aroused their suspicions. The three other soldiers pursued and shot dead the gunman.
IDF Brig.-Gen. Avi Blut said that the heightened awareness and actions of the soldiers, as well as Kedumim’s security complement, both in detecting the van and in keeping all of the gates to the settlement closed, saved significant civilian lives, since it meant the gunman could not penetrate the community to perpetrate a terrorist attack.
Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades declared responsibility for the attack in which Amir was killed, saying that it was conducted in response to the recent Israeli operation in Jenin and the tearing up of the Quran in Urif.
The IDF mapped the home of Amir’s killer on Thursday night in preparation for its demolition.