Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, was killed trying to stop two Palestinian teenage terrorists from stabbing shoppers at a Rami Levy supermarket in the Binyamin region of the West Bank on Thursday.
At his funeral in Jerusalem early Friday morning, his wife Yael, described how they had been in another part of the store with their infant daughter Netta when the teenagers pulled out knives.
“You are a true hero. You didn’t have a gun, but still you ran [toward the attackers] without thinking twice,” said Yael in a tear filled voice, as she stood by her husband’s freshly filled grave in the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery.
“I always knew that if something happened you would be the first person to respond,” Yael said.
Her husband of almost two years, who she called by his middle name of “Yanai” had been a combat sergeant in the IDF’s Nahal Brigade. He was only able to be with his family on weekends.
“Yesterday we went shopping so that when you returned to the army on Sunday you would know that Netta and I had everything we needed and that nothing was missing.
“You were always like that. Whenever you were with us during the weekends you did everything you were not able to do during the week when you were away,” Yael said.
At times, as she stood at the podium, she cried so hard it was difficult for her to speak, particularly as she recalled their last moments in the Sha’are Binyamin industrial park outside of Jerusalem, where Rami Levy is located.
“We came to the supermarket. We were together. You were worried the whole time about Netta and made sure she stayed close to me.
“Then in one moment, everything happened. We heard there had been a stabbing and even though you did not have any weapons on you, you ran to help without thinking twice.
“I waited for you to return to me and Netta, I waited for you to hug us and say that everything was fine and that you had succeeding in stopping the terrorists.
“We waited a long time and you did not return,” she said.
“People, who were as amazing as you were in thinking about others before themselves, helped me find you,” said Yael.
“I was not able to stop you and I am not sorry. If you had not raced there [to help], you would not be the Yanai that I know, the one I fell in love with.”
Tuvia Yanai had been stabbed in the upper part of his body as he tried to disarm the two 14-year old Palestinians who had come to the store from Betunyia, the nearby suburb of Ramallah were they lived.
Another shopper with a gun, shot and wounded the two teenagers, who are now being treated in two Jerusalem’s medical centers; Sha’are Tzedek and Hadassah Ein Karem.
Tuvia Yanai was also evacuated to Hadass Mount Scopus, where doctors tried to save his life for a number of hours, but the injuries were to severe.
An Israeli shopper who had been wounded by the terrorists was released on Friday from the Hadassah Medical Center on Mt. Scopus.
Yael told the hundreds of mourners who crowded around her at Friday’s funeral of the special relationship she had with her husband, who she had known for seven years first as a friend and then as the love of her life.
Read the full article at JPost