Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trauma looms on Israeli Memorial Day
Families of fallen soldiers call for accountability from political leaders
TEL AVIV, Israel — Ruby Chen's son, Itay, was killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. But unlike scores of other families of soldiers killed that day, Chen doesn't have a grave to visit because his son's remains are held captive in Gaza.
The absence of a final resting place is being felt acutely now, as Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, when cemeteries are brimming with relatives mourning over the graves of their loved ones.
“Where are we supposed to go?” Chen said. “There is no burial site for us to go to.”
Memorial Day is always a somber occasion in Israel, a country that has suffered through repeated war and conflict throughout its 76-year history. But Chen's torment underscores how this year it has taken on a profound and raw sadness coupled with anger over the failures of Oct. 7 and the war it sparked.
Families of the fallen, along with broad segments of the public, are demanding accountability from political and military leaders over the blunders that led to the deaths of hundreds in the deadliest attack in the country's history.
“Too many people were killed on that day because of a colossal misjudgment,” said Chen, who for months thought his son was still alive after he was snatched into Gaza, before receiving confirmation earlier this year that he was dead. “People who made the misjudgment need to pay, from the prime minister down.”
Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of attacks beginning at sundown Sunday with an official ceremony and smaller events the following day at military cemeteries across the country. The solemnity is then abruptly interrupted by the fanfare of Independence Day, which begins Monday evening.
Grouping the two days together is intentionally meant to highlight the link between the costly wars Israel has fought and the establishment and survival of the state, a contrast that this year will be hard to reconcile at a time when Israel is actively engaged in warfare and Israelis feel more insecure than ever.
With the trauma of Oct. 7 looming large, each day is expected to feel dramatically different from previous years.
More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Hamas launched its surprise attack on Oct. 7, when thousands of militants rampaged across southern Israeli military bases and sleepy communities on a Jewish holiday.
The militants stormed past Israel's vaunted defenses, bursting through a border fence, blinding surveillance cameras and battling the country's first line of defense soldiers, many of whom were outnumbered. Itay Chen, an Israeli-American, was one of them.
Beyond the crisis of confidence in the military, the attack smashed Israelis' faith in their government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose public support plummeted. Thousands of people take part in weekly protests demanding an early election so that a new leadership can take over.
Military and defense leaders have said they shoulder the blame for what transpired during the attack, and the country's head of military intelligence resigned as a result. But Netanyahu has stopped short of accepting responsibility, saying that he will answer tough questions after the war and even blaming his security chiefs last year in a late night post on X, formerly Twitter, that he later deleted.
But many Israelis have also lost patience with the protracted war, where soldiers continue to die and where thousands have been wounded.
The war's twin aims, of defeating Hamas' governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages, haven't been accomplished, casting a shadow over events typically meant as a salute to the military's prowess, said Idit Shafran Gittleman, an expert on the military and Israeli society at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. Tens of thousands of Israelis also remain displaced from the country's south and volatile north.