Gaza war adds new gravity to Yom Hazikaron

Since Israel was founded in 1948, its numerous wars have taken a heavy toll on its small population. With mandatory conscription, most Israelis have lost someone on the battlefield — a relative, friend, community member, or someone they know more indirectly — and each sacrifice is highly personal.

Last year has been even more taxing than usual, given the summer’s war with Hamas in Gaza. During the Israel Defense Forces’ Operation Protective Edge, 66 IDF soldiers were killed.

The sobering cost of Israel’s military reality is reflected annually on the Hebrew calendar date of the fourth of Iyar, which marks Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day). Established unofficially in 1948 and then officially in 1963, it is commemorated in conjunction with Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), which falls on the following day. This year, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut come April 22–23.

“We didn’t think it would be easy when we decided to reclaim our right to national self-determination after 2,000 years,” Paul Hirschson, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, told JNS.org.

“Since the establishment of Israel we have been forced to defend ourselves on too many an occasion,” he said. “Some of the finest of our children, friends, and colleagues had to pay with their lives to secure that elementary right to national self-determination. We grieve their loss deeply yet remain, always, resilient with a view to the future: building, innovating, creating, and confident that we will one day live in both peace and security.”

Using information compiled by the Foreign Ministry, JNS.org remembers the Israeli soldiers who lost their lives in Operation Protective Edge and in other incidents since last Yom Hazikaron.

GAZA

July 18, 2014: Just a day after Israel began its ground operation to dismantle Hamas’s terror tunnels, the IDF experienced its first casualty of Operation Protective Edge—Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, of Herzliya, who was killed in Beit Hannun in the northern Gaza Strip.