IDF soldier Ariel Topaz dies from wounds sustained in terror attack over a week earlier

Terrorists rammed car into four IDF soldiers near Tzrifin IDF base

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Israel Defense Forces announced on Thursday that Capt. Ariel Topaz (24), an intelligence officer in the IDF Intelligence Directorate, died of his wounds after being seriously injured in a terror attack on July 14.

Four soldiers were wounded when a terrorist rammed his car into them while they stood near the entrance to the Tzrifin IDF base.

Several Knesset members expressed their condolences to Topaz’s family, including Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech of the Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party.

Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, called Topaz a “hero of Israel,” writing on 𝕏: “I send my condolences to his family in their most difficult time. May his memory be blessed.”

“There isn't a day that I haven't prayed that he would get out of this,” stated Yoni Hakimi, head of the Pardes Hana-Karkur Regional Council.

“With sadness and grief, Pardes Hana-Karkur says goodbye to another magical child who joins the family of communities. A great sadness fell again on our colonies. Ariel was the grandson of Aryeh and Leah Gershon. Aryeh ran the boarding school at the agricultural school for 38 years.”

“We invite the residents to pay Ariel the respect he deserves on his last journey and to honor the grieving family with a guard of honor with Israeli flags on the way to the cemetery. May his memory be a blessing,” Hakimi added.

Among the soldiers wounded in the ramming attack was one who had been at the nearby military base to receive treatment for PTSD, according to Ynet News.

During the fighting in Gaza, he witnessed the deaths of five comrades when a booby-trapped building exploded.

“He was still grieving for his friends and now this happens where he least expected it,” his sister said.

The terrorist was a resident of East Jerusalem and was killed during the attack by a Border Police officer at the scene of the attack.

The ramming took place against the backdrop of the attempted assassination of the head of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing, Mohammed Deif, and the terrorist organization’s subsequent calls on Palestinians to "escalate the resistance.”

Hamas, at the time, released a statement calling on “the masses of our Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem to go out in mass demonstrations… and to escalate clashes with them in defense of our land, our holy sites and our right to freedom and independence.”