'The blood you shed': Israel buries fallen soldiers
military cemetery of Jerusalem, mourners streamed in for the funerals of young Israeli soldiers, with only the stifled cries of anguish piercing the steely silence.
Mount Herzl cemetery, named after the founder of political Zionism, has in the past few years seen more remembrance ceremonies than funerals.
But mounds of ochre earth now mark freshly dug graves as Israel buries its soldiers fallen in the battle against Hamas militants whose shock assault unleashed Saturday has claimed 1,200 lives in the country.
Most of the victims are civilians, but at least 169 Israeli troops have been killed in the battles to repel Hamas fighters. Eleven of them were laid to rest at the cemetery in the night to Wednesday.
A few steps from the tomb of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the brothers in arms of 20-year-old Noam Elimelekh Rottenberg lowered the coffin draped with Israel's blue-and-white flag into the grave.
«Noam, this war will be the last.
We don't want to live like that. The blood you shed will be avenged a hundred-fold,» vowed Colonel Nissim Yitzhaki, who leads the fallen soldier's battalion.
Alerted by messages on WhatsApp, around 1,000 people had turned up to mourn the soldiers.
