ISRAEL'S 20,532 SONS & DAUGHTERS
THE JEWISH WORLD MOURNS THEM ALL...

LIST OF FALLEN SOLDIERS




Pre-State - 1,589

1,589 men & women gave their lives without seeing their dream of an independent Jewish State come true. These include members of the Shomer, Nili, Haganah, Etzel (Irgun), and Lechi (Stern Gang) as well as the members of organizations who assisted the Ha'apalah and Bricha programs, volunteers in the British Mandate police, and Jewish citizens of Palestine who volunteered for the WWl Turkish army and WWll British army.

29.11.47 - 20.7.49 - War of Independence - 4,783

4,783 men and women gave their lives as the combined Arab armies were determined to make the Jewish State stillborn. Many of these brave soldiers were survivors of the Nazi death camps who came ashore and were handed weapons without training or knowledge of the language. Without the dual sacrifice of these remarkable individuals there would be no State today.

1949-1956 The Early Years - 1,151

1,151 additional men and women lost their lives during the early years of the State as terrorist organizations and the surrounding Arab states continued making life hard on the newborn Israel.

1956 - Mivtzah Kadesh - The Sinai Campaign - 231

231 men and women lost their lives as Israel, for the first time, took the offensive.

1956-1967 - Years with a Divided Jerusalem - 1,001

1,001 men and women lost their lives as the young State endured a divided capital city and impossible borders snaking along its center.




1967 - The Six Day War - 776

776 men and women lost their lives during this, the most remarkable of all modern military campaigns, which saw Israel regain control over its entire capital city, the biblical city's of Hevron and Shchem, the Sinai and the Golan Heights.




1967-1973 - The War of Attrition - 2,069

In what has become known as Israel's forgotten war, 2,069 additional men and women lost their lives as terrorist organizations and the surrounding Arab states continued making life hard on the newly emerged and confident Israel. This number includes the soldiers lost in the Dakar submarine which drowned on its maiden voyage from England as well as the men who held the line on the Suez Canal and those who bravely chased potential terrorists all over the Judean mountains.





6/10/73-31/5/74 - The Yom Kippur War - 2,687

As with the previous lists, this number will continue to rise as soldiers injured during this bloodiest of Israeli conflicts succumb to their injuries and others, currently listed as Missing In Action are hopefully found in the sands of Sinai and Egypt and laid to a proper and honorable rest in Israel.




1974-1982 - "The Years of Peace" - 2,020

The majority of these 2,020 young lives were lost chasing terrorists away from the Northern border with Lebanon as Israel's peace treaty with Egypt moved its most actively hostile border from south to north. One well known name among these 2,020 is Yonatan Netanyahu, hy"d, the commander of the Israeli commando forces that heroically stormed the Entebbe airport and secured the freedom of the Air France passengers held hostage there.

5.6.82 - 31.5.85 - Operation Peace For Galilee - 1,217

1,217 men and women gave their lives as Israel struggled to protect the families living in northern Israel as terrorist organizations continued harassing the countries northern cities, towns and kibbutzim with katyusha rockets and terror attacks.  Four names NOT on this list are Zechariah Baumel, Tzvi Feldman, Yehudah Katz, and Ron Arad - the MIAs who we all continue to hope and pray are soon found and brought home safely.





1.6.85-31.3.98 - Still in Lebanon - 2,806

Itamar Iliya, hy"d, who was killed during the commando raid in September 1997 is the only soldier on this list that has yet to be brought to burial. His body is still being held by terrorist forces in Lebanon.

We cannot for the moment list all 20,532 names - though we should and will. Following are the names of the 73 IDF soldiers who perished in the tragic helicopter crash in February, 1997. May they stand to represent all the heroes that came before them...

One of the Deceased...

One of the soldiers killed in the crash, Assaf Rotenberg, was interviewed a week earlier on Israel Television, following the detonation of the Hizbullah bomb in Lebanon which killed three of his fellow soldiers. He was asked, "How is it to return to the front lines in Lebanon after such an event? Is it hard to return?" Assaf Rotenberg answered, "We have no choice but to continue the job. It's hard, but I don't think I feel badly that I am returning to this outpost and not to a safer base somewhere within Israel; exactly the opposite."

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