56 soldiers and security personnel, 84 disabled vets died over past year
Country to honor 24,068 security service members who fell since 1860
In the past year, 56 IDF soldiers and security personnel have died serving the State of Israel, the Defense Ministry announced ahead of the country’s Remembrance Day, which will be marked starting Tuesday evening.
Another 84 IDF disabled veterans who died from their injuries over the past year were added to the list.
In total, 24,068 IDF soldiers, police officers, prison wardens, Shin Bet security service and Mossad agents have been killed since 1860 defending the pre-state Yishuv and Israel. That number also includes members of the pre-state militias and the Jewish Brigade, who served in the British army during World War II.
Ahead of Remembrance Day, the Ministry’s Department of Families and Commemoration, which is responsible for all events regarding the day, has completed restoration of hundreds of burial plots in 52 military cemeteries, thousands of graves located in various communities across the country and Bedouin Warriors memorial site.
The work included renovation of the sites, accessibility, maintenance, cleaning, landscaping as well as polishing and replacing damaged or old tombstones. The department’s employees have also called bereaved families ahead of
Remembrance Day in order to provide any assistance they might need.
Aryeh Mualem, Deputy Director-General and Chief of the Families, Commemoration and Heritage Department at the Defense Ministry said, “These days, the entire nation is with the memory of the fallen and stands by the bereaved families.”
He added that employees of the department
are prepared “on this day like all year round, to receive the bereaved families in the cemeteries, to provide an embrace and extend a supportive and loving hand to them. A flag, a wreath and a candle will be placed on each grave as an expression of the moral debt of Israeli society to the fallen, who sacrificed their lives.”
Remembrance Day will begin at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, when a one-minute-long memorial siren will sound across the country. Immediately after the siren, memorial ceremonies will take place across the country, the main one to be held at the Western Wall in the presence of President Isaac Herzog and Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi.
The following day a two-minute siren will sound at 11 a.m. followed by official state memorial services at 52 military cemeteries across the country and at memorial sites.
The main ceremony will be held at the State Memorial Hall On Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in the presence of the president, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Speaker of the Knesset Mickey Levy.
Immediately after the siren, at 11:02, a special fighter jet will pass over the military cemetery and the State Memorial Hall on Mount Herzl.
Along with the memorial events in Israel and as part of strengthening the connection with bereaved families living abroad, there will be an online ceremony that will be displayed on the Defense Ministry’s You Tube Page.
The ceremony will be distributed to thousands of Jewish communities around the world, and the service will be translated into several languages including English, Spanish, French and Russian.