1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub: Remains of missing fallen soldier Yehuda Katz located
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The recovery of the remains of fallen soldier Yehuda Katz marks the emotional and historical closure to one of Israel's longest-standing open wounds regarding missing soldiers from action. Disappeared during the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon alongside comrades Zachary Baumel and Zvi Feldman, Katz was the final missing serviceman from that conflict, which took place forty-four years ago. For decades, his absence represented a profound burden for his family, who had lost their ability to grieve properly because they did not know where he lay or if he was alive. The successful location of his remains finally allows his relatives to close the circle of uncertainty and provides them with a specific place to honor his memory and express their sorrow.
This achievement underscores the enduring Israeli military doctrine that no citizen is ever left behind, a principle that has guided efforts for over four decades even after wars have officially ended. Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, who served as a deputy company commander during the battle, explains that this commitment operates on two vital levels: an ethical obligation to ensure every sacrifice is acknowledged and a psychological necessity to bolster soldier morale. By guaranteeing that every fallen soldier will be brought home for burial in Israel, the state reinforces the message that no individual fights alone, fostering greater confidence and courage among active duty personnel who know their entire society stands behind them.
The battle itself is now viewed with a complex duality, recognizing both the heroic sacrifice of the troops and the strategic failure of falling into a Syrian ambush due to overconfidence. Rabbi Cherlow notes that while the soldiers are true heroes, the event also serves as a stark reminder that missions can fail and mistakes happen, a lesson that must be learned from past errors to improve future operations. Closing this forty-four-year chapter allows the nation to move forward without the stain of unresolved loss, ensuring that the stories of those who did not return home are finally told with completeness and dignity.
Looking ahead, this resolution sends a powerful message to current soldiers still operating in southern Lebanon and to families of other missing veterans from conflicts like the Yom Kippur War. It reaffirms the trust between the public and institutions like the IDF and Mossad that they will continue to exhaust every possible resource to identify and recover any remaining missing personnel. Ultimately, ending this long saga restores peace to the families involved and allows a new generation of Israelis to understand the full truth of Sultan Yacoub, honoring the fallen while learning from the past to ensure such gaps in knowledge never occur again.
Read the full video transcript
No citizen left behind. That's what
Israel proved again today after locating
the remains of fallen soldier Yehuda
Katz.
He was the last soldier still missing
from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, the
first Lebanon War. That was 44 years
ago.
Katz disappeared during the 1982 clash
with Syrian forces in Lebanon alongside
Zachary Baumel and Zvi Feldman, whose
remains were also recovered in recent
years.
This has been one of the longest-running
open wounds in Israel's history of
soldiers missing in action. And it
finally comes to a close today.
For more on the meaning of this recovery
and both for the families and for a
generation of soldiers who carried the
memory of Sultan Yacoub for more than
four decades. I'm joined now by Rabbi
Yuval Cherlow. He fought on the
outskirts of that battle as a deputy
company commander. And today he's the
director of the Zohar Center for Jewish
ethics. Rabbi Cherlow, thank you for
being with us on i24 News today.
>> Good evening.
>> Well, when you heard that Yehuda Katz
had finally been located, what went
through your head? What does this moment
mean to you personally?
>> You have to understand that missing
soldiers is the worst situation.
I can't say anything good about, you
know, someone that was injured or
someone that that is dead, but at least
they have an address, they have a
place where they can
grieve when they they can
ex- you know, express all their
emotional feelings. Missing is always a
kind of a big storm between
expecting and understanding and not
knowing and maybe we abandoned him and
whatever. So, this is the real worst
situation. So, the first thing is at
least for the families, even though his
parents passed away years ago and and
the
other
>> [clears throat]
>> members of the family, but the the fact
that the at least now we know and we are
closing the circle is very important
from the emotional private issue and and
the life.
Now, we have to understand that it has
also as you started and you said in the
preface, also something that is
affecting the entire IDF, entire efforts
of the Israelis army and that is no one
will be left behind.
>> Well, Katz was the last of the three
soldiers missing from Sultan Yacoub.
This battle has remained an open wound
for the country for 44 years, four
decades. So, what does this recovery say
about Israel's commitment to its
soldiers even decades after a war ends?
>> I think that it's really very, very
important and that is it's coming from
both directions. One is the ethical one
and we have to know that everyone that
is sacrificing his life uh towards in in
order to save the state of Israel will
not be left behind and will always feel
that we are a debt we have a debt
towards him to do as much as we can to
bring him back first of all alive, but
even if it's not the situation to do it
to bring bring his body and he will be
buried in the land of Israel. That's one
direction.
The second one is the influence on the
soldiers. And a soldier when he goes to
the battlefield knows and
from now on he knew it before, but now
he got a big push to understand that
he's not alone, that the entire society,
entire the state, entire
uh idea the IDF and the commanders, the
the the authorities are behind him and
he's a actually is a kind of a
messenger. And we are
uh
and emphasizing this point that a
soldier will be more confident to be in
the battlefield and do as the best
things he can that he can do in order to
save the state of Israel.
>> Well, 44 years later, there are still
Israeli soldiers as we speak in southern
Lebanon. What message do you think that
they're taking from this today if they
have seen the news?
>> I hope that the families, especially,
you know, the pilot that we never forget
him.
I hope that the families are really
understand really believe and have can
trust the state of the Israel and the
authorities and the commanders and the
Mossad and everyone that is connected to
this holy mission that
we'll do as far as we can and as as much
as we can and we'll be
devoted to
find also
the bodies of everyone that is missing.
There are soldiers that are missing from
you know, from the Yom Kippur War and
we hope that everyone will be
identified, everyone will find them and
everyone will know that we are doing as
much as we can.
>> As someone who was there,
what do you hope that younger Israelis
or any of our viewers right now, what do
you hope that they now understand about
Sultan Yacoub, this battle and the men
who did not come home?
>> I'll say something very
very carefully. Actually, it was a kind
of an ambush that the Syrian army
actually we we were trapped into the
ambush. We were I think too proud of
ourselves and too big shots and we
really ran into the ambush and we
understood too late that we made a big a
big mistake. This is not a
it's a really the the soldiers that that
were are the battlefield are heroes. Uh,
I'm talking about the
the the the the battalion commander Ira
and all the other soldiers are really
It's It's are real heroes. But, from the
other hand, it was a failure. And when
you
have a stain of a failure for 44 years,
uh, the fact that the story's going to
be closed. And
that's the end of this story. I think
it's very important for us to understand
that sometimes we don't succeed and
sometimes we we fail to fulfill the
mission. We have to be brave enough to
fix everything that we can do and
come to that conclusions what to do the
next time.
>> message [clears throat] as this story
does come to a close today. Rabbi
Yisrael Chaim Lau, thank you for being
with us.