‘My brother, you are a real hero’
Capt. Daniel Perez, son of World Mizrachi CEO, killed on Oct. 7, is laid to rest
Hundreds of mourners came on Monday to the Mount Herzl military cemetery under dark gray skies that opened to heavy rains to pay their last respects at the funeral of Capt. Daniel Perez, 22.
Perez was killed in action on October 7 and his body was taken to Gaza. The IDF announced his death on March 17 and his funeral was held the following day although his body is still being held by Hamas. A coffin with blood belonging to Perez gathered at his tank’s last battle site was lowered into the grave.
Perez was from Yad Binyamin and served as a platoon commander in the 77th battalion of the 7th “Storm from the Golan” formation and had made aliyah from South Africa with the rest of his family in 2014.
He had asked the army to change his profile so he could serve as a combat soldier in the Armored Corps. He was the son of Rabbi Doron Perez, CEO of the World Mizrachi movement, and his wife, Shelley Perez.
In his eulogy for his son Daniel, who battled against hundreds of Hamas terrorists with his four-member tank team along the southern border at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, its adjacent military base, and at Kibbutz Saad, Rabbi Perez noted how his other son Yonatan was fighting at the same time at Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
“You not only saved the lives of many others, but you may have also saved the life of your brother who was fighting only some meters from you at Kibbutz Nahal Oz,” he said. “I thank God for saving Yonatan, but I don’t know why he chose you for that mission. It is as if your whole life’s journey led you to be ready for that mission and you were.”
He described Perez as a young man full of energy who was always surrounded by friends of all stripes. He had an adventurous spirit and loved extreme sports, especially wakeboarding, he said, and he was also determined and stubborn, and when he set his mind to something, nothing could dissuade him.
help of the United States, have been negotiating the deal. Past rounds of indirect talks have focused on the Hamas leadership in Doha.
A senior diplomatic official confirmed that this time around a more direct line of communication has been established with Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar himself, with less confusion and interference from Hamas’s Qatar leadership, which currently has less influence on the terms of a final deal.
Part of the reason the deal will take longer is that each time some new issue needs to be decided by Sinwar, it will take 24-36 hours to reach him from his tunnel hideout, said the official.
The official confirmed that the general terms of the deal remained a six-week pause to the war in exchange for the release of 40 out of the 134 remaining hostages.
It’s also expected that Israelis would have to release Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists held in their jails.
The senior diplomatic official hit a more pessimistic note, telling The Jerusalem Post that the negotiations would take at least two weeks, if not more.
The security cabinet had met on Sunday to set guidelines for the Israeli team that gave the negotiators more leeway than in the past.
The official explained that this is the first time since the current round of negotiations started that the negotiating team has more specific positions and discretion to finalize a variety of items in the deal.
Despite the negotiating team receiving a larger mandate to seal a deal than it had in past rounds, when the team had at best received approved general principles for a deal, there are still many issues where the cabinet has not given its final opinion, said the official.
The terms still in dispute are exactly which Palestinian security prisoners will be released and what concession Israel will make upfront regarding any partial return of some Palestinians to northern Gaza and any partial withdrawal of IDF forces from certain spots during the cease