Brother of the late Master Sergeant (res.) Tamir Vaknin: "I ask that we remember him as a person full of giving"

The difficult incident in Lebanon: Yoav, brother of the late Master Sergeant (res.) Tamir Vaknin, who fell yesterday, said goodbye to his brother in an interview on the daily news. He felt it was important to serve the country and do reserve duty, he said. Tamir was not willing to leave his friends. He was the heart of the company, of every place he arrived at. The funniest person at every gathering—that was Tamir, all heart. The funeral of the late Tamir will be held this evening at 19:00 in Eilat.

"I spoke with him the evening before he was killed," Yoav said. "We talked via messages, he told me where he was and showed me a picture of the house he was in. It was a normal conversation, we laughed as always. I never ended a conversation with him without laughing. He made sure I would be calm; the next morning he was unavailable, and then in the afternoon the event happened."

According to him, he was in Gaza for seven months, was in Syria, and was in Lebanon. "It could be that he was afraid, but he would not share those things. He would talk about things with humor. We would laugh because that's who Tamir was."

Yoav requested: "It is very important to me that we remember him as a person full of giving. Tamir would take care of everyone, his nephews, my parents. He 'left us in the dust' as a son. He and all the reservists, they are all heroes, the salt of the earth."

The difficult incident in Lebanon

This morning, the names of the late Major (res.) Harel Birenstock, 34, from Nokdim, and the late Master Sergeant (res.) Tamir Vaknin, 33, from Eilat, who fell yesterday from an explosive device in a booby-trapped house in Lebanon, were cleared for publication. Four other soldiers were seriously wounded.

After the incident, the IDF spokesperson accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire and warned the residents of southern Lebanon of an expected attack. The residents of the village of Al-Mansouri were told: "The IDF is not interested in harming you. For your safety, you must immediately evacuate your homes in the village and town and move north outside of it to a distance of at least 1,000 meters. Anyone found near Hezbollah operatives, its infrastructure, or its weapons risks their life."