Yehuda Wachsman, father of kidnapped soldier, dies at 73
Yehuda Wachsman, father of slain soldier Nachshon Wachsman who was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 1994, died after a long struggle with illness on Thursday at Hadassah University Hospital Ein Kerem. He was 73. The details concerning his funeral have yet to be announced.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he heard “with sorrow” about the passing of Wachsman and that following the murder of his son he “chose life, educated and taught [his pupils] to have values, [love of] torah and the land [of Israel].” He expressed his condolences as well as those of his wife Sara and the people of Israel to Wachsman’s widow, Esther, and their family.
President Reuven Rivlin called Wachsman “a man of peace” who had his life “turned upside down.”
Rivlin remarked on the solidarity shown by the IDF unit that attempted to rescue Wachsman noting that they “went to rescue their brother without asking what his background was.”
Wachsman’s son, Nachson, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists 26 years ago and used as a bargaining chip that Hamas hoped would secure the release of its founder, Imam Ahmed Yassin, from Israeli prison. Israel offered to release him in May of that year due to his ill health, but Yassin refused. He was eventually released in 1997 and killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2004.
An IDF attempt to rescue Wachsman from his kidnappers proved unsuccessful. While Sayeret Matkal soldiers killed the three kidnappers they were not able to save Wachsman, who was killed when the kidnappers realized they were being attacked, and the commando unit lost one of its soldiers, Captain Nir Poraz. The failure of the mission led to the IDF creating a special unit focusing on rescue operations involving breaking into homes and other urban spaces.
In 2019, Esther Wachsman told Maariv that Rabin visited her and her husband and took responsibility for the failure to rescue their son.
“[My husband] told him: ‘you are responsible, you did not prepare the rescue attempt as you should have done, you did not do all that you could have done.’ Rabin left [our home] in tears.”