The IDF is still searching for the bodies of four soldiers in Gaza: Shmuel Arava, Shmuel Gabrielides, Meir Mizrahi and Yosef Penso. Those names may not sound familiar. After all, they went missing long before October 7—75 years, to be precise.
Today is one of Israel’s lesser-known national days: the Memorial Day for soldiers whose burial place is unknown. After years of discussion about the long quest to bring home the hostages, it’s time to give attention to the painstaking work to recover those soldiers who are lost but not held.
In the early 1990s, the IDF established the Eitan Unit, a branch dedicated to searching for all of Israel’s missing soldiers, from 1948 until today. During Operation Braveheart—the recent mission that recovered the final hostage, Ran Gvili—hundreds of bodies were checked in a Gazan cemetery for a DNA match to the fallen hero. But Ran was not the only person for whom they were testing.
It doesn’t stop at DNA. Amid the chaos and displacement of the war, the unit has been searching for and interviewing Gazans who may know something about Israel’s War of Independence soldiers. You can do the math: Eitan has been tracking Gazans aged 90 and above for testimony and details.
