{"id":588534,"date":"2026-08-18T15:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T15:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/588534\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T15:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T15:40:08","slug":"after-44-years-israel-retrieves-remains-of-soldier-killed-in-lebanon-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/588534\/","title":{"rendered":"After 44 years, Israel retrieves remains of soldier killed in Lebanon: What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel recovered the remains of fallen soldier Yehuda Katz overnight Monday, 44 years after he was killed during the First Lebanon War<\/a>, the military confirmed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

With no proof of his death emerging over the years, his family had refused to accept the military\u2019s assessment that Katz had been killed in battle. The military did not offer any details on the operation, including where it took place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Background: Katz was one of three soldiers declared missing following the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982 following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The remains of Zachary Baumel were recovered in 2019 with Russia’s help, and Zvi Feldman’s remains were recovered in 2025 in a covert Mossad operation.<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel during his funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, April 4 2019. (MENAHEM KAHANA\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Battle of Sultan Yacoub took place at the beginning of the First Lebanon War in June 1982 and is considered one of its fiercest battles. Under President Hafez al-Assad, the Syrian military<\/a> entered Lebanon in 1976 and stayed until 2005. When an Israeli armored unit was ambushed, 20 soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded. Six soldiers were initially declared missing, but in the following days, it was discovered that two had been taken prisoner and one had been killed. The two prisoners and the body of the third soldier, Zohar Lifshitz, were returned to Israel in a 1984 prisoner exchange with Syria.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s security agencies made extensive efforts over the years to determine the fate of the three missing soldiers, without success. Military intelligence estimated that Palestinian elements in Syria affiliated with the PLO and its commander, Abu Jihad, who was assassinated by an Israeli commando raid in Tunis in 1988, had information about Katz\u2019s whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Know more: Katz\u2019s family traveled abroad extensively for years, meeting with world leaders and any contacts that might have information about his fate. In 2004, the military\u2019s Chief Rabbinate declared the three missing soldiers \u201cfallen soldiers whose place of burial is unknown,\u201d but their families campaigned against the designation. Without proof of his death, Katz\u2019s family insisted over the years that he could still be alive and held captive in Lebanon or in Syria. His mother died in 2011 and his father in 2014.<\/p>\n

\n AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events \u2014 for less than $2\/week.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel recovered the remains of fallen soldier Yehuda Katz overnight Monday, 44 years after he was killed during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-588534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}