(IsraelNN.com) Four IDF soldiers were killed by friendly fire in two incidents in Gaza last Monday – and the parents of some of them want to embrace their comrades who accidentally killed them.

Over the weekend, with the seven-day mourning period drawing to a close, the parents of St.-Sgt. Nitai Stern and Capt. Yoni Netanel sent messages to the soldiers whose fire accidentally killed their sons.

Capt. Yonatan Netanel

On Friday, Rabbi Amos Netanael and his wife Malki phoned two of the tank crew members who fired on a building in which the soldiers were taking refuge. In addition, they wrote them a letter full of love and encouragement:

“Dear tank crew #... of Company …. of Regiment …, who are fighting night and day with valor and self-sacrifice on behalf of our nation and land.

"We know that our son Yoni fell as part of the great military campaign at the hands of our own forces. We feel a deep inner need to tell you, with all of our life-strengths, that we love you and embrace you tightly.

“Fatal friendly fire incidents are an unavoidable part of every war and of our ability to defeat the enemy on the battlefield. Yoni went out to war knowing this, and we, his parents, sent him off to war knowing this as well.

“It was not you who hit Yoni!

“Yoni died for the Sanctification of G-d’s Name at the time that G-d decided his time on earth had reached its end. You were the pure angels who had to carry this out.

“We find comfort in the fact that your pure hands struck at him, and not the defiled hands of our wicked enemy – for Yoni could not have been felled by any impure hand.

“It is important for us to tell you that we love you with all the warmth of our hearts, you are like our own children… Please, we ask you, keep up the same great spirit that beat in Yoni’s heart – the spirit of faith, of strength, daring and love, and we will then know that Yoni continues to live forever within you.”

The letter concludes with a request that they come to visit “so that we can embrace you,” and was signed by Yoni’s parents, his wife Tziona, and their 3-month-old daughter Maayan.

The parents of Nitai Stern are similarly concerned for the soldiers who caused their son’s death. “We have an obligation and the privilege to embrace them,” said his mother Sarah. “There is no war without mishaps like this. We want them to come to us and be part of us. We lost a son, and I won’t let any additional mothers lose their own sons to depression or sadness.”