At the start of Sunday’s State Memorial Ceremony for the Fallen of Operation Iron Swords at Mount Herzl, the public knew of 898 soldiers, police officers, and members of the security services who had fallen since October 7.
By the end of the ceremony, that number stood at 902, as the names of four more soldiers who fell—this time in a battle in southern Lebanon on Saturday—were permitted for publication while the ceremony was underway. Later in the day, two more names were added.
This chilling convergence of events was an embodiment of the kind of year Israel has experienced: during a memorial service, more names were added to those being mourned.
To a certain extent, the period since October 7 has felt like one long Remembrance Day. The names of the fallen are read on the radio, heart-wrenching stories fill television and radio broadcasts, and newspapers feature interviews with friends and families recounting snippets of the fallen’s lives.
Over a year later, this extended Remembrance Day-like feeling shows no sign of letting up. The two state memorial ceremonies held on Sunday as part of the government-declared national day of mourning for the events of October 7 —one for fallen soldiers, police, and security service personnel, and the other for civilians killed—gave the day a Remembrance Day feel. But the entire year since October 7 has carried that heavy and sorrowful tone.
Or, as President Isaac Herzog said at the beginning of his speech at the ceremony for the soldiers: “It has already been a full year that our lives have been shrouded in unceasing and heavy mourning for our sons and daughters who fell in battle.”
Even before uttering those words, he said, “At this moment, our hearts are with the dozens wounded and affected in the severe terror attack near the Glilot base.”
This is Israel, October 2024: More fallen soldiers, a memorial ceremony, a terror attack.
Headlines never stop breaking in Israel
As the ceremony was broadcast on Channel 12, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen read: “A ramming attack in Glilot: 37 wounded, 6 in serious condition, the truck driver neutralized.”
But this is also Israel, October 2024: One hundred and forty IAF aircraft flying nearly 2,000 kilometers in jaw-dropping precision over enemy territory to knock out some of the world’s best air defense systems, the Russian-made S-300s, and a factory making key components for Iran’s ballistic missiles.
Also, IDF soldiers blowing up a massive underground tunnel—in fact, an underground military base for Hezbollah that was to serve as a jumping-off point for terrorists to invade northern Israel in an October 7-style attack—using enough explosives to make the earth shake and trigger earthquake sensors.
The country is at war, and the national mood swings from euphoria—the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the attacks in Iran, the discovery and destruction of the Hezbollah tunnels—to depression: hearing about additional fatalities, or another terrorist attack.
“A year ago,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the state ceremony, “we suffered an unbearable blow, but we were not broken. Immense pain struck us, but we did not collapse. We fought back against our attackers, as we have done that until today.”
That pretty much sums up the mood: pain, but resilience and determination. It is horrifyingly difficult—as the two memorial ceremonies interspersed with news of another terror attack and more fallen soldiers made so clear on Sunday—but if the Jewish people want a state here, history has provided no alternative path.
Netanyahu quoted words a senior Egoz commander gave his unit before they moved into southern Lebanon earlier this month: “We have a great privilege to write history. As we did in Gaza, we’ll do so here in the north.”
Indeed, history is being written. Decades from now, people will read about this war—the sacrifices and the achievements—and admire the grit, determination, and will of those who fought it, and the civilians who endured it, with the same admiration we today have for those who fought in and survived the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, and the Yom Kippur War.
Their admiration will be well deserved.
However, the emotional rollercoaster of the last two two months -- beginning with the exploding beepers in Lebanon and running through the killing of Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, Sinwar, Iranian ballistic missile attacks, drone attacks on a Golani base, and the unceasing reports of fallen soldiers and terror attacks — has been a heavy burden for all.
Adding to the difficulty are the personal war-related worries so many people face, alongside the general national concerns. These include anxieties about the well-being of loved ones in the army and reserves in Gaza and in southern Lebanon, as well as concerns about how their spouses and children are managing at home without them. This combination makes the entire experience far from easy.
Necessary? Yes. Meaningful? Yes. The stuff of which Jewish history is made? Definitely. But trying, taxing and—as was so clearly evident on Sunday—profoundly difficult.