Hundreds Attend Levaya of Murdered IDF Soldier Tomer Hazan H”yd

Hundreds of people attended the levaya today of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan H”yd of Bat Yam. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Cholon.

Tomer, who was just 20 years old and a sergeant in the Israeli Air Force, was murdered by a Palestinian acquaintance who lured him to a village near Qalqilya in the West Bank.

Tomer was lured by 42-year-old Nidal Amar. Amar worked illegally at an Israeli restaurant, in Bat Yam, where Hazan also worked part-time.

Amar was arrested and confessed to killing Hazan, the Shin Bet said.

Amar recounted how he picked up Hazan in a taxi on Friday after convincing him to accept a ride. He took the Israeli to an open field, killed him and threw his body in a well, the agency said.

Amar confessed to intending to trade Hazan’s body for the release of another brother, a member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been serving time in an Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in several terror attacks, including planning a suicide bombing by a female bomber that was thwarted.

Amar showed the Israeli forces where Hazan’s body was hidden.

The restaurant owner described Hazan as a “fine” young man, well liked “by everyone.”

Hazan had a non-combat position in the air force and had an arrangement allowing him to hold a job outside the military, at the restaurant, where he knew Amar.

Yitzhak Ilan, a former deputy head of the Shin Bet, told Israel’s Channel 10 TV that because Hazan’s body was found quickly, a wider strategic incident was averted since it meant the soldier’s remains couldn’t be used as a bargaining chip, as in some past cases.

A senior military official said initial investigations suggested that Palestinian individuals planned the attack on their own, not on the orders of any terror groups.

The two traveled together to the village by taxi on Friday, with Amar somehow persuading Hazan to get into the taxi with him. There, Hazan was murdered by Amar in a field, and his body dumped in a well on the outskirts of the village, security officials said. The body was found and identified on Shabbos afternoon.

The soldier’s family, which reported him missing on Friday morning, was notified of his passing yesterday.

Hashem yinkom domom.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}