Eliraz Peretz
Eliraz PeretzIsrael news photo

Just over six months after her brother was killed by terrorists near the Gaza border, Bat El Peretz got married on Thursday, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Bat El’s brother, Major Eliraz Peretz, was killed in late March in an incident near Kibbutz Kissufim on the Gaza border. The incident occurred as a Golani unit crossed the border into Gaza in pursuit of a gang of terrorists who were planting explosives along the border. The terrorists got close to the soldiers and were able to shoot at them from close range, with one bullet apparently hitting a hand grenade one of the soldiers was carrying. The grenade exploded, killing Peretz as well as Staff Sergeant Ilan Sviatkovsky.

In August, IDF troops killed Bassem Dragma, a senior Islamic Jihad operative who took part in the incident which killed Peretz and Sviatkovsky. He was killed by soldiers while trying to plant bombs at the Gaza security fence.

Thursday’s wedding of Bat El Peretz and Matan Yisachar, both 21, was a somber one, with the pain of Eliraz’s death still strong. Prior to the wedding, Bat El visited the gravesites of Eliraz and her other brother, Uriel, who was killed on November 25, 1998 when his Golani unit was attempting to neutralize several explosive devices planted by Hizbullah terrorists. Placing two stones on her brothers’ tombstones, she asked G-d not to take anymore of her family members.

Her mother, Miriam, could not hide the pain of having her daughter get married without the presence of Eliraz. “We are preparing to build a new home in Israel,” she said. “The entire family had a very complex and difficult day. I have gone through the experience of marrying off my son without Uriel, and now – also without Eliraz.”

Miriam Peretz, who had accompanied her daughter to the cemetery earlier, said that she had placed her hands on the grave of Eliraz and imagined him dancing at his sister’s wedding. She then promised her son that the family would continue to dance in his place.