Since the last Memorial Day (April 25, 2023), 1,594 Israeli soldiers and civilians have died. This includes 760 Israel Defense Forces soldiers (61 of whom succumbed to their wounds from previous years) and 834 civilians, of which 822 were killed on or after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, according to numbers released by the Israeli Ministry of Defense on Thursday.
A total of 30,134 security forces and civilians have been killed in defending the land of Israel and in terrorist attacks since 1860, the year in which the first Jews left the walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods.
IDF casualties in the Gaza war left behind 1,294 grieving parents, 248 widows, 520 orphans and 2,174 bereaved brothers and sisters.
Those murdered in the hostilities left behind 630 orphans; 177 widows and widowers; 1,355 grieving brothers and sisters; and 693 bereaved parents.
Before Oct. 7, 12 civilians were added to the number of those murdered in hostilities, including Chana Nachenberg, 52, who was wounded in the 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem and died this year from her injuries. New York-born Nachenberg had been in a vegetative state for 22 years since the attack.
On Oct. 7, 201 civilians were kidnapped by the Hamas terror group, not including members of the security forces and the standby units.
A total of 106 men, women and children were returned from captivity in the Gaza Strip as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Currently, more than 200 days after the massacre, 132 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, including 65 civilians. Thirty of those have been killed, of whom eight were returned to Israel for burial.
Israel’s Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism (Yom Hazikaron) will begin on Sunday evening, May 12, at sundown.
