'Tuvia engaged knife attackers with bare hands'

IDF hands out citations for bravery, including a posthumous citation to St.-Sgt. Maj. Tuvia Yanai Weismann, who was killed trying to stop knife attackers in supermarket.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: MAY 11, 2016 03:10
St.-Sgt. Maj. Tuvia Yanai Weismann (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
St.-Sgt. Maj. Tuvia Yanai Weismann
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
On the eve of Remembrance Day, the IDF on Tuesday announced a series of citations for bravery, including one to be given posthumously to St.-Sgt.
Maj. Tuvia Yanai Weismann, a Nahal brigade combat soldier who was killed in February while trying to thwart a terrorist attack at a supermarket.
The 21-year-old father of a baby girl, who was on leave and unarmed, sought to engage, with his bare hands, the knife attackers as they assaulted shoppers at a Rami Levy supermarket in the Binyamin region. He was killed in the fight with the terrorists.
“St.-Sgt. Maj. Weismann engaged [the attackers] with his bare hands and exhibited, through his actions, a good example of the IDF’s values,” the military said Tuesday.
Weismann’s citation was designated by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Roni Nume.
Binyamin Brigade commander Col. Yisrael Shomer awarded a citation to Sgt. Lihi Malka, a female soldier in the Rescue and Training brigade of the Home Front Command who, during a stabbing attack in Kikar Adam in the West Bank in October, shot dead a Palestinian knife attacker who had injured a fellow soldier.
The IDF said Malka acted quickly and exhibited bravery, remained calm under attack and displayed professionalism during the incident.
Samaria Brigade commander Col. Shai Kleper designated a citation for Sgt. Matan Shamir, who was sustained a stab wound to the head in an attack near Nablus in February during which he shot dead two knife attackers, saving his commander who had been assaulted.
Certificates also will be awarded to the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion honoring it for its determination, professionalism and initiative during its security missions in the Judea Brigade and to Border Police Supt. Shai Ohayon, of the Rama Battalion, for directing the mission to rescue two IDF soldiers who accidentally entered the Kalandia refugee camp with a military vehicle in February.