Sgt.-Maj. Ibrahim Hamadieh

Jan 9, 2001 - Sgt.-Maj. Ibrahim Hamadieh, 23, of Rehaniya was one of four IDF soldiers from the Bedouin desert patrol unit who were killed when armed Palestinian terrorists from the southern Gaza Strip infiltrated into Israel and attacked an IDF post near Kerem Shalom.

At 4:30 AM, two armed Palestinian terrorists from the southern Gaza Strip, carrying explosive belts, assault rifles, grenades, and dressed in Palestinian Authority police uniforms, infiltrated into Israel and attacked an IDF post near Kerem Shalom. Sgt.-Maj. Ibrahim Hamadieh and St.-Sgt. Mofid Sawaid were killed in the intial attack, and two others were killed in the exchange of fire. The terrorists, one a member of the Palestinian Authority's naval force, and the second a Hamas operative, were killed. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ibrahim Hamadieh, from the Circassian village of Rehaniya in the Galilee, served for three years in the Gaza Strip, and after completing his army service last year, asked his father if he should become a career soldier. "I told him: 'Do what is good for you, my son,'" recalled his father, Ahmed Hamadieh, a cattle farmer. "The army was his entire world." On one wall of the family home hangs a merit certificate from the army for his role in helping prevent a Palestinian attack against a Jewish community in the Gaza Strip. Ibrahim's two older brothers also served in the army.

Three days before the incident, Ibrahim returned to the army after a weekend holiday. Although his village in the Galilee was already under snow, he was determined to return to his unit.

Sgt.-Maj. Ibrahim Hamadieh was buried in the military section of the cemetery in Rehaniyah.