Soldier killed in Golan mine accident to be buried

Roee Yisrael Alfi, 18, of Gan Yavne died after one of the mines went off for an unknown reason in the Golan Heights.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Minefield land mines Golan Heights 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Minefield land mines Golan Heights 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The IDF named an Engineering Corps soldier killed in a minefield accident on Wednesday as Roee Yisrael Alfi, 18, of Gan Yavne, and promoted him posthumously to the rank of corporal.
Alfi, who had been in training and was tasked with clearing a minefield on the Golan Heights, died after one of the mines, which had been exposed and marked ahead of its clearance, went off for an unknown reason.
The IDF is investigating the accident.
He will be laid to rest on Thursday evening at the Gan Yavne cemetery.
Speaking to Army Radio, Matan Hadad, a close childhood friend of Alfi, described how they had planned to to fly abroad together.
Alfi did not divulge too much information on his operational activity, but the fact that he enjoyed what he did was visible, Hadad said.
“He loved his friends from the battalion. He loved everyone. He was a golden guy,” Hadad said.
The former chief Engineering Corps officer, Brig.-Gen. Eli Toldeno, told Army Radio that the advanced training activities in which Alfi took part, involving the clearing of minefields, is the standard program soldiers undergo to prepare them for the battlefield.
“It’s like a pilot who trains in a series of activities until he is qualified operationally,” Toldeno explained.