IDF Sergeant Yehuda Katz Laid to Rest on Mount of Olives 44 Years After Fallen in Lebanon War

Sergeant Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, who fell in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during the 1982 Lebanon War, was laid to rest on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem 44 years after his death. His remains were recently returned to Israel in a covert operation led by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Mossad, following a thorough identification process involving the Military Rabbinate, Medical Corps, and Israeli Police. The family was officially notified after the identification was completed.

Katz was born in Ramat Gan to Holocaust survivor parents, Sarah and Yosef Katz, who passed away without receiving news of his fate. He showed exceptional talent in religious studies and attended the Kerem B'Yavneh Hesder Yeshiva. Katz served as an armored corps soldier and fought alongside his commander, Lieutenant Zohar Lifshitz, in the fierce battle at Sultan Yacoub on June 11, 1982, just ten days before his scheduled discharge from the IDF.

While Lifshitz's body was returned to Israel in 1984, Katz, along with two other soldiers, Zecharia Baumel and Tzvi Feldman, were considered missing for decades. Intelligence reports indicated that Palestinian factions in Syria, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat and the PLO, concealed information about the missing soldiers. After persistent efforts by the Israeli defense establishment and Katz's family, the remains of the last missing soldier from the battle have now been brought home for burial in Jerusalem, closing a painful chapter for the family and the nation.