On a hillside in Jerusalem, hundreds of people stood in near silence at the funeral of a “lone soldier”. Speaking only in whispers or exchanging glances they crammed on to the stone walls that overlooked the line of white gravestones in Israel’s national cemetery on Mount Herzl.
A fearful quiet had descended on the city, with the line of cars snaking up the hillside and the crowds of people finding their way to the cemetery marking the only crowds in a place normally teeming with life.
Mourners attending the funeral all referred to Nathanel Young, 20, a British citizen killed on Saturday on the Gaza border during an incursion by Hamas militants, as the “lone soldier”, a term that includes those such as Young who have come from overseas to serve in the Israeli army.
Young’s parents had flown in from London to join his four siblings, three of whom live in Israel. The family recalled Young, who had moved from the UK to Israel, as someone who strove to be generous with his time, showering them and his nephews and nieces with affection during his time away from his military service.
“My mind has constantly gone to the last day I will ever spend with him, where he was with us for the Jewish festival of Sukkot the weekend before he was killed,” said his brother Eliot.
He described how they sat together in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda Market that night, discussing faith. “Of course, so he could really spend time with me, he was getting the last bus home. I then walked him to his bus stop and we had our traditional big goodbye hug...that is the last time I saw him.”
“He found true happiness in Israel and it was infectious,” his sister, Gaby Shalev, told the crowd assembled on the hill. “Nat’s selfless kindness is so rare.”
“His soul should not go alone. We came to thank him and say goodbye,” said Michail Levinson, sitting quietly on a stone bench with her daughter as she watched the columns of people arriving.
Levinson, who said she was religious, watched as mourners from across Israeli society came to the site: a woman in a black and white striped crop top stood near men in religious clothing, while a young woman in civilian clothing with a rifle slung across her back crowded with others on to the stone walls. Another woman marched up the path in fluffy white slippers.
“My son is religious, too, but he’s in the army even though I don’t believe he should be,” Levinson said. “We expect there to be more funerals.”
Jerusalem’s cobbled streets and broad boulevards that normally bustle with people and traffic have been empty since Saturday, with many shops shuttered as residents from both sides of the Green Line said they felt profoundly uneasy, the city reeling and fearful in response to the incursion by Hamas militants into Israel, and Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The divided city, dotted with some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital. Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 war, with an increasingly harsh system of governance over Palestinians living in the eastern areas of the city amid the growing presence of Israeli settlers.
A sombre mood has overtaken much of West Jerusalem, with many residents saying they were avoiding public spaces, and the pale stone streets that on most days would be crowded with people lay silent.
Two students at a nearby yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, said they had attended the funeral to show unity but noted the widespread unease across the city, fearful of revenge attacks such as stabbings and car rammings that have sometimes accompanied escalations in the past.
“There’s this feeling there we’re probably better off staying home,” said Ben Meizels, a yeshiva student who recently arrived in Jerusalem from Los Angeles. “We want to stay safe, take our time to think how the next few weeks will go. The current situation has really just put something on my mind to stay home.”
On a quiet sidestreet in East Jerusalem, where many shops were shuttered, a Palestinian activist, Adnan Barq, said Israeli security forces had tightened their control over the area. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, he said, were staying at home, fearing a violent response by Israeli security forces.
“The Old City and its surroundings look familiar because this same policy of collective punishment is returning now, it’s not unique,” he said. “There was this level of control during the Covid-19 pandemic, because during any big event, they need to do this show of power and control.
“But what’s scary is that, as we now say among each other, if we sneeze in front of a soldier, we might get shot,” he said, pointing to multiple past examples of a violent response by Israeli security forces towards Palestinians in Jerusalem. “They are waiting and anticipating any kind of suspicious behaviour, just to come and smash your face or arrest you.”
The tension in Jerusalem persisted amid an increase in violent incidents across the West Bank, including the deaths of many children as a result of live fire by Israeli forces during stone-throwing protests at Israeli checkpoints.
The organisation Defence for Children Palestine, which documents harm to children across the occupied Palestinian territories, said it had recorded five separate incidents of children being shot and killed, all with bullet wounds to their abdomen, chest, or head.
At one of the entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City, a rabbit-warren of stone passageways surrounding churches, al-Aqsa mosque, and the Jewish holy site the Western Wall, armed Israeli security forces stopped and questioned Palestinians, asking them about what they were carrying or their intended activities.
“So, we are trying to be careful,” said Barq. “I feel like they are imposing a kind of unofficial curfew. Yesterday, my brother went to buy snacks and they stopped him and asked why he was walking here, where he was going and what he was doing. Today, when I was on my way to work, and I was stopped and questioned.”
He added: “It’s always a unique situation for Jerusalemites, we are the masters of collective punishment. But still, there is the uncertainty. It’s a collective feeling.”
• This article was amended on 12 October 2023. Owing to a misunderstanding, an earlier version incorrectly suggested that family had not been present at Nathanel Young’s funeral. In fact his parents and four siblings were there, and tributes from them have been added. We apologise to the family for this error.
