The Ministry of Defense published on Friday morning, ahead of Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Hostile Acts, an updated tally of fallen soldiers from 1860 to the present, which stands at 25,417.
Since last Memorial Day, 316 fallen soldiers were added to the tally, along with 61 disabled veterans who passed away due to their disabilities and were recognized during the year as fallen soldiers of Israel’s wars.
Currently, Israel is home to 8,674 bereaved parents, 5,391 widows, 10,302 orphans, and 34,250 siblings of fallen soldiers, totaling 58,617 members of bereaved families, including 5,944 bereaved family members who have been added due to the „Swords of Iron“ war.
Over the past year, 1,647 family members joined the bereaved family community, including 487 bereaved parents, 85 widows, 163 orphans, and 912 bereaved siblings.
Memorial Day will begin on Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m. with a one-minute memorial siren which will sound across Israel. Immediately following the siren, memorial ceremonies will begin nationwide. The main ceremony will take place at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, attended by the President of Israel and the IDF Chief of Staff.
The following day, on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., a two-minute memorial siren will sound, after which state memorial ceremonies will commence at 58 military cemeteries and memorial sites across the country. Immediately after the siren at 11:02 a.m., a special flyover of fighter jets will pass over the military cemetery and the National Memorial Hall for Israel’s Fallen at Mount Herzl.
This year, a hybrid online Memorial Day ceremony will be broadcast to thousands of Jewish communities worldwide in a joint project by the Ministry of Defense and the World Zionist Organization.
The ceremony, intended for Israeli communities worldwide, is divided into two parts: a ceremony filmed at the National Memorial Hall at Mount Herzl, which will be presented on the Ministry of Defense’s YouTube page, and content for holding a memorial ceremony which will be published on the website of the Department of Families, Commemoration, and Heritage. The content will be distributed to thousands of Jewish communities worldwide.
