This evening the Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism begins and Israel remembers and honours 23,447 casualties of war and terrorism.
The memorials erected to commemorate Sgt Avi Mizrahi and Captain Omri Tal are just a few hundred paces – and forty-six years – apart.
Sgt Avi (Avraham) Mizrahi from Jerusalem and Kibbutz Kfar Szold was on patrol near Nahal Meitzar in the south Golan Heights with the infantry squad he commanded on December 10th 1968 when he was killed during an encounter with terrorists. Aged 31 at the time of his death, Avi left his wife, son and one month-old daughter. He is buried in Kibbutz Kfar Szold in the Upper Galilee.
Captain Omri Tal, aged 22 from Yahud, was killed on July 31st 2014 during Operation Protective Edge. His armoured corps unit was in the Eshkol district near the border with the Gaza Strip when it was hit by Hamas mortar fire. Omri and four others were killed and sixteen soldiers were wounded in the attack. Survived by his parents and older brother, he is buried in Yahud. A recently established look-out point named in Omri’s memory overlooks the Sea of Galilee from the south Golan Heights.
May their memories be blessed.
