(3 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
Associated Press
Jerusalem – 3 June 2025
1. Coffin with body of Staff Sergeant Omer Van Gelder covered by Israeli flag being brought in by soldiers ++UPSOUND of singing in Hebrew++
2. Family members crying
3. Soldiers laying down the coffin on the ground
4. Mid of family members crying and hugging
5. Coffin being lowered into ground
6. Family members crying with arms around one another
7. Soldiers and family members filling the grave with sand
8. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Unnamed commander of the fallen soldier’s unit:
"You made sure to carry out your mission as required. You competed for additional missions and were always among the top (soldiers). It was important to you to make an effort and learn new things. You insisted on being part of the brigade as part of your love and belonging to the place where you grew up."
9. Soldiers at the funeral
10. Pan from mourners to the funeral.
STORYLINE:
Mourners attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier on Tuesday who was killed during a military operation in northern Gaza.
Staff Sergeant Omer Van Gelder, 22, was killed alongside other two soldiers, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on Israel’s forces since it ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March.
During the funeral in Jerusalem, the unit commander said Van Gelder joined the brigade “as part of your love and belonging to the place where you grew up."
The military said the three soldiers, all in their early 20s, died during combat on Monday, without providing details. Israeli media reported that they were killed in an explosion in the Jabaliya area.
This comes as Israeli forces fired on people as they headed toward an aid distribution site in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least 27, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said, in the third such shooting in three days.
Israel ended the ceasefire after Hamas refused to change the agreement to release more hostages sooner. Israeli strikes have killed thousands of Palestinians since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel also imposed a complete blockade on food and other imports for 2½ months, leading to warnings of famine before the restrictions were loosened in May.
Israel says the restrictions and the new system are designed to prevent Hamas from stealing aid. The U.N. says its ability to deliver aid across Gaza has been hindered by Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting, but that there’s no evidence of systematic diversion of aid by Hamas.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel that ignited the war.
They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. Around 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the Oct. 7 attack, including more than 400 during the fighting inside Gaza.
AP video by Alon Bernstein
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