The State Memorial Ceremony for Fallen Soldiers Whose Burial Place is Unknown took place at The National Memorial Hall on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Tuesday in the presence of numerous public officials.
Among those attending were Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Deputy President of the Supreme Court Noam Solberg.
The memorial event takes place every year on the seventh of Adar, which, according to Jewish tradition, is the Hebrew date when Moses died, but whose place of burial is unknown.
The audience stood as a memorial flame was lit by Dalia Mizrachi, the daughter of 1st Lt. David Mizrahi, who fell during Israel’s War of Independence in an operation across Egypt’s border.
According to the IDF’s website, Mizrahi was captured with fellow soldier Ezra Afgin. They were both fighters in Dawn, Palmach’s undercover unit.
The two were caught and imprisoned in Gaza Prison on May 23, 1948. On Aug, 22, 1948, they were executed on charges of attempting to poison wells. They were killed by a firing squad. The execution took place at a grove north of the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza, the IDF said.
“Regarding the place where the soldiers’ bodies were buried, the information we have indicates that they were buried in Gaza, apparently where public buildings were later built,” according to the website.
“Their bodies haven’t been found to this day,” said the ceremony’s moderator.
Lt. Col. Shlomi Azani, head of the IDF’s branch for locating missing soldiers, said the nation of Israel remembers “its courageous and loyal sons and daughters,” who gave their lives serving in the IDF, in other security services, in the underground fighting to establish the State of Israel and in terrorist attacks abroad.
“There is almost no other country in the world that sanctifies the value of bringing the fallen to burial like the State of Israel,” Herzog told the audience.
“This is a Jewish obligation that is ingrained in our heritage ... a sacred Israeli obligation, an unwritten but clear order, not to leave a soldier behind, especially after he’s fallen,” Herzog said.
Katz said the IDF remains obligated to bring certainty to families whose loved ones have been lost in battle and whose whereabouts are unknown; “to dispel the doubts that surround the lives of their families.”
“The entire security establishment has been operating for decades, whether it concerns a fallen soldier from the War of Independence, the Yom Kippur War or any other campaign,” he said.
“We are acting within the borders of Israel and outside them with the required secrecy and the necessary professionalism, in order to follow after the fate of those who fell in battle,” Katz said.
Brig. Gen. Eyal Krim, head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces, offered a prayer. Wreaths were placed by officials and families to commemorate missing soldiers.
