It is April.  From the neighborhoods of Zeitun and Khan Yunis mortars and Kassam rockets are shot into the settlements of Gush Katif and the Gaza envelope communities.  The IDF enters with armed forces to carry out operations in the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Gaza. Reporters accompany the forces.  On May 11th, during the exit from Zeitun on the outskirts of Gaza, forces discover that an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) with a battalion specializing in combat engineering was missing. The APC was destroyed in an explosion and another APC had been badly hit. Six IDF soldiers were killed in the explosion and the Islamic Jihad terrorists abused the remains of the bodies.  Search and rescue forces go out from the headquarters of the Gaza Division to retrieve the remains of the bodies for burial in Israel.  Due to an IDF ultimatum and international pressure the terrorists return the remains to the Red Cross

The next day, on May 12th, another APC (Model M-113) with 5 soldiers was hit by an RPG-7 rocket. The soldiers were killed and this was while the operation to rescue the first APC was still going on.  Additional IDF forces enter the area of the second APC in order to remove the injured.  The lesson of bodies taken captive by terrorists is recognized immediately and upon the IDF soldiers was placed a holy mission- to retrieve the remains for Jewish burial in Israel.

I am alerted by telephone. I must present myself immediately to the Southern Command. Together with regular-servicemen from the Golani Brigade and from the Squad Commanders' course, forces from the army rabbinate and the General Staff Division for Burial arrived as well for wide-scale searches in the area. Men from the Chevre Kaddisha, extremely precious, and totally inexperienced in warfare found themselves together, under fire, with regular servicemen- trained in capturing targets in open territory suddenly in the heat of a battle, searching for their friends and neighbors to their units.

The searches lasted all day Friday since there were soldiers that had not been identified. I understand that I will not get home to be able to read my Bar Mitzvah Parsha.  It's not worth calling home and putting stress on the family.

In Israel different opinions and pictures make their way to the newspapers.  Soldiers bent at the knees searching for IDF soldiers: A testament to the ethical standards of the IDF and its obligations to its soldiers or an unnecessary danger?

For us it wasn’t a question but rather a feeling of great elevation. The heavy surrounding noise and the whistling of the bullets did not allow us to speak except for a prayer for success for our mission and peaceful return.

The sun already stood at the tops of the tress and the Sabbath came and entered. My wife and eldest son knew, then, that I was at the Southern Command, safe and protected and that we would speak again after the Shabbat.  The sounds of shots come from all sides when we see the windows and the positions from where the firing is taking place.

Tanks and 9-D Bulldozers form a wall, allowing the soldiers to carry out their holy work.  Another soldier on the security staff that remained in a nearby house was killed by a sniper. Another force leaves on a rescue mission from the house.

On the two-way radio there is a debate about the sanctity of the Shabbat but we are dealing with the sanctity of IDF soldiers and worrying for their scared and waiting families. The Sabbath Queen descends and with her the appearance of IDF soldiers. A helicopter descends to take the finds for quick identification.  The last of the soldiers is flown to Tel HaShomer Hospital for identification and burial.

A Kabbalat Shabbat of the heart, Shabbat songs.  Again at night we will return to a Shabbat of spiritual elevation at the command center with a prayer from the depths of the heart and an Aliya to the Torah to give praise and thanks to Hashem, Blessed is He, Who has chosen us from all the nations, and gave us His Torah and the Shabbat and the land of Israel and the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.

In the aftermath of the events in the Philadelphia Corridor the IDF carried out "Keshet BeAnan (Operation Rainbow)" in Rafah to destroy the terrorist infrastructure.  A memorial to the slain soldiers of the second APC tragedy that included the tunnel company of the "Knights of Steel" Heavy Engineer Company was established.