Netanel Yahalomi (right). Photo: wiki commons.

The Israeli soldier killed on Friday in an attack by terrorists who opened fire near the border with Egypt has been identified as Corporal Netanel Yahalomi, and an IDF inquiry into Friday’s incident shows that the terrorists – all of whom were killed by IDF forces – waited for people attempting to cross into Israel illegally to receive attention from IDF personnel, and then opened fire on the remaining IDF soldiers at a border post.

“He went to defend the State and land. That is what he fought and was killed for,” Natanel’s sister Avital said on Friday. “He died so we could live here. It was not an unnecessary death. God will give us the power to cope.”

A group of terrorists followed 15 people attempting to cross the border into Israel illegally from Egypt.  When a number of IDF soldiers left their post to hand out water to the people trying to cross the border, only 4 soldiers were left at the post, which was then fired at by the terrorists.

IDF Spokesperson Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai said on Friday that the terrorists were carrying rifles, grenades and extra rounds.

“They were on a major killing spree, but were killed within 15 minutes from the moment they fired the first shot,” he said.

The slain Israeli’s family was alerted to the death just hours before Shabbat and spoke with the media from their home in the religious community of Nof Ayalon.

“Netanel was born in Bnei Brak, and then we moved to Nof Ayalon,” his father Shmuel Yahalomi said. “He was a Torah student at the Mitzpe Yeriho Yeshiva. “He insisted on serving in a combat unit and joined the Artillery Corps, where I also served.”