BICOM

Israel will collectively bow its head this evening and tomorrow as it remembers the 23,320 Israelis who have lost their lives in the line of duty or as terror victims.

A one-minute siren at 8pm this evening will bring the country to a standstill, marking the beginning of Remembrance Day. It will be followed immediately by an official state ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which will be attended by President Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot. Meanwhile, tens of thousands will gather in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv and other public spaces to remember the fallen through readings and song.

Tomorrow morning, a two-minute siren at 11am will signal the start of memorial ceremonies across the country at military cemeteries, in schools and in many work places. Regular television and radio programming is suspended for the day. The state memorial ceremony will take place at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and will be followed by a ceremony for the victims of terror attacks. A “Remembering through Song” event will also take place, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and other dignitaries will recite poems about and by fallen soldiers.

This year, the names of 23,320 soldiers and terror victims will be remembered, including 166 who lost their lives during the past year. 67 soldiers and five civilians were killed during Operation Protective Edge last summer, while two soldiers died in a Hezbollah attack on a border patrol in January. A further 35 IDF disabled veterans died of their wounds during the past year.

Ahead of Remembrance Day, Defence Minister Ya’alon said, “On Remembrance Day, the Israeli nation, as one big family, bows its head and unites with the memories of all of the fallen of Israel’s wars, as a moral obligation to those who in their death commanded us to live, so that we may be worthy of them.”