And the Children Shall Return to Their Borders

Last Sultan Yacoub Soldier Returns Home

Staff Sergeant Yehuda Katz will be laid to rest Friday at Mount of Olives military cemetery, following special IDF and Mossad operation to recover his remains from Lebanon

JFeed

AUG 20, 2026 07:51

2 min read

Staff Sergeant Yehuda Katz's funeral will take place this Friday, departing from Kerem B'Yavneh Yeshiva, where he studied in his final years before enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces, and proceeding to the military section of the Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that a joint IDF and Mossad operation successfully recovered the remains of Staff Sgt. Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, who fell during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the First Lebanon War in June 1982. The recovery closes a painful chapter that has endured for more than four decades.

Katz was the final missing soldier from that tragic engagement, which left a deep scar in Israeli military history.

"For many long years, I authorized numerous covert operations to locate the missing soldiers of Sultan Yacoub," Netanyahu said Tuesday. "I promised their families that we would never stop working to bring them home. Today, all of us, the entire people of Israel, embrace the Katz family."

The prime minister noted that Katz's parents, Sarah and Yosef, of blessed memory, never ceased their efforts to locate and return their son, but sadly passed away before seeing this day.

"We are returning to you, the brothers Avi and Prachya, your beloved Yehuda, to you and to the soil of the Land of Israel that he loved so much," Netanyahu said.

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