Two IDF reservists, Sgt. Maj. Nadav Kali, 24, of Har Halutz, and Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Ofek Mualem, 23, of Jerusalem, were killed on Thursday in an operational accident in the Gaza Strip. The two served in Battalion 7007 of Brigade 16, the Jerusalem Brigade. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the establishment of a team of experts to examine the circumstances of the incident.
The incident occurred in the afternoon. The two soldiers were killed by the explosion of an IDF drone at an Israeli military post in Gaza during an operational accident. According to an initial IDF investigation, the soldiers had operated two armed drones over the course of a 24-hour period. The first mission ended successfully, but during the second flight, for reasons that are still being investigated, the drone fell inside the post in the northern Gaza Strip. The soldiers approached the drone and apparently touched it, at which point an explosion occurred, critically wounding them. They were treated at the scene, and their deaths were later pronounced at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
Who Was Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Ofek Mualem of Jerusalem?
Mualem, a resident of Jerusalem’s East Talpiot neighborhood, was laid to rest on Friday, the eve of Sukkot, at Mount Herzl. He attended TALI Ramat Moriah Elementary School, a unique school in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, where his twin brother Segev and his sister Adi also studied. He attended the Hebrew Gymnasium high school in the Rehavia neighborhood and graduated with class 101. During his mandatory IDF service, he served as a soldier in the Nahal Brigade. Over the past year, he had begun studying mechanical engineering at Azrieli College in Jerusalem.
In a post in his memory, his cousin Aviad wrote: “Round after round, like his twin brother Segev, his younger sister Adi, and many in our family, he chose the good of the country over comfort or personal needs. He replaced the big post-army trip with short vacations, and began the engineering studies he had enrolled in while serving yet another round. He had many reasons that, in a normal reality, would have been completely legitimate reasons to say: enough, I have done my part, call other people. Even so, he chose to try to maintain a normal life in such a reality, to help at home, his family and his friends. He always did everything quietly and with the modesty that characterized him.”
His cousin added: “No one asked Ofek whether it suited him to spend another holiday period on duty, just as no one asked his wonderful family whether it suited them to accompany him this morning at Mount Herzl.” He added in pain: “Bereavement and an emergency call-up order have something in common: neither takes Israel’s holidays into account. Ofek Mualem cared about all of us by reporting for reserve duty even when it was inconvenient. He did it so that all of us could have a happy and safe Sukkot.”
