The funeral services for three of the six Israeli soldiers killed during the fighting in Gaza are scheduled for Monday evening.
The funeral of Maj. (res.)
Avraham D. Shafran, 21, is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Kfar Hula neighborhood in the central Israeli town of Beersheba.
He is buried at a nearby cemetery.
The burial service for Lt. (ret.)
Yael Shafron, 20, is set for 7:30 p.d. in an Orthodox cemetery.
Shafer is buried in the Beershul neighborhood in southern Israel.
And Lt.
Sgt. Oren Shafra, 24, is to be buried in a military cemetery in the northern Israeli city of Naftali Bennett’s home town of Tiberias.
The IDF said Tuesday that a military team will conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of the three soldiers.
The bodies of the five other soldiers were discovered Tuesday morning by a civilian and taken to the Kibbutz Ashkelon Military Hospital for identification.
Shavit said the IDF is doing everything it can to find the three bodies.
It is possible the bodies could be in a sealed casket, Shafragan said, adding that the IDF will take steps to secure the remains before burying them.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense said the bodies are being transported to a military morgue in the city of Ashkelons Kfar Hebron, where they will be placed in a specially constructed van.
A military spokesperson said the vehicles were not equipped with ventilation systems.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The funerals for the other soldiers are set to be held on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority (PA) said he was informed that the bodies of all six soldiers were found.
He also said that the three others are in stable condition.
The families of the soldiers are expected to speak with Israeli military officials later this week.
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday announced that it would open a fund for the families of all of the slain soldiers, which was established as part of the Palestinian unity government in 2014.
It said the funds would be used to help the families.
“It is now clear that the Palestinian people, especially the children, will be the ones paying the price of the massacre,” the PA statement said.
Israel has maintained that the killing of the IDF soldiers was a terrorist attack, and its security forces were responding to an alleged rocket attack.
It has blamed Hamas for the incident, but Hamas denies the charge.
The soldiers died when an improvised explosive device exploded near the home of a Palestinian man, who was wounded in the attack.
The Palestinians, for their part, say the Israeli military was acting in self-defense and the IDF did not have the right to use live ammunition in an offensive.
Israel on Monday blamed Hamas and its military wing, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for the death of the Israeli soldiers, but denied responsibility for any rocket attacks.
Israeli security sources said that a Palestinian militant group called Islamic Jihad, also known as Hamas, had carried out the attack on Monday night.
The Hamas-run al-Qassam Brigades said that an explosion occurred at the house in the village of al-Shifa, north of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
The militant group said it was carrying out a strike to target the headquarters of the security forces.
“The blast targeted the headquarters and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers and civilians, and the operation was aimed at destroying the headquarters in order to create an opportunity for an attack,” the group said in a statement.
“This attack was aimed to prevent the capture of the headquarters by terrorists who have already carried out a number in the past.”
In a separate incident, a Palestinian was killed and four others were injured when a Palestinian car exploded in a residential area in the Gaza City suburb of Shujaiya, according to Palestinian officials.
The car exploded as it was passing a checkpoint near the southern entrance of the town.
There were no immediate details on the death.
