Did Israeli leaders undermine military in Gaza? A rift becomes public.
A somber procession of uniformed soldiers carried the casket of the young paratrooper captain, Roy Beit Yaakov, to his final resting place in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, as a rabbi read out the prayers for the dead.
The officer, along with four other soldiers, was killed May 15 in a friendly-fire incident while fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, emphasizing once again the steep cost Israeli families are paying for the war against Hamas.
What was especially jarring – to the Israeli public and to Israel Defense Forces commanders – was that these soldiers died in an area that had already been largely cleared of Hamas operatives after months of fierce fighting in the north and center of the strip.
