Volunteers reinforce gravediggers at main Israeli military cemetery

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Volunteers helped gravediggers at Israel's main military cemetery on Wednesday as burials began for soldiers slain in the assault on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip.

Using shovels and a mechanical digger, they scooped out earth to prepare plots for the soldiers' final resting place at Mount Herzl National Cemetery.

Ori Kirzon, a 29-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew, said he came to Mount Herzl at 6:30 a.m. with other volunteers to lend a hand.

"I decided that I'm going to do something for the people of israel, for the troops, for God Almighty...and dig a grave for a sacred soldier," he told Reuters.

Of the around 1,200 Israelis killed in the raids and ensuing clashes that began on Saturday, 169 have been identified as soldiers - at least 10 of them residents of Jerusalem.

Many Israeli leaders and local soldiers are buried at the cemetery, named after the 19th-century writer Theodor Herzl, who envisaged the creation of the Jewish state. Herzl himself is buried there.

It is sometimes likened to the U.S. Arlington National Cemetery.

At a tree-lined section of Mount Herzl, dozens of silent mourners watched a funeral unfold.

With Israel pummelling Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll passed 950 on Wednesday, and the conflict threatening to spread to other fronts, the casualty toll is expected to rise.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Angus MacSwan)