Slain IDF defense contractor buried at brand-new Samaria cemetery

David Libi, the Israeli civilian military contractor who died in an IED blast in northern Gaza on Thursday, was buried in his hometown of Malachei Hashalom on Friday, hours after a cemetery was constructed at the outpost in the Binyamin region of Samaria.

“Following the news of the fall of David Libi, may God avenge his blood, in Gaza, I turned to government ministers with a request to help bring David Libi to burial in the new community of Malachei Hashalom,” Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz wrote on Facebook.

“Within 24 hours, a cemetery was established for the community that was founded just two years ago, and where the eldest son of the town’s founder, settlement activist Eliav Libi, will be laid to rest,” he said.

Ganz thanked Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry with responsibility for civilian matters in Judea and Samaria, for helping “issue a TABA [zoning plan] in record speed.

“This is the path of the heroic David and of the entire Libi family. This Land is acquired through suffering, but this incredible family teaches us to keep moving forward with courage, alongside the pain—to build and to grow,” Ganz stated, concluding, “May his memory be for a blessing.”

Friday’s funeral was attended by Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, one of the most prominent figures in Israel’s religious Zionist movement.

David Libi, 19, was deployed to Gaza by the Defense Ministry with the Israel Defense Forces’ Combat Engineering Corps, operating an excavator.

Eliav Libi established the Malachei Hashalom farming outpost, which is close to the more established community of Kokhav HaShahar.

On May 20, the British government imposed sanctions on the Libis’ family business, Libi Construction and Infrastructure Ltd., accusing the firm of providing “logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts resulting in the forced displacement of Palestinians.”