The funeral procession for Staff Sergeant Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, who fell in the Sultan Yacoub battle in 1982 and whose remains were returned from Lebanon this week, set out Friday from Kerem B’Yavneh yeshiva where he studied, heading to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The return of Katz’s remains was made possible by a special covert operation led by Military Intelligence in a joint community effort with the Mossad. After the findings arrived in Israel, a precise identification process was conducted at the IDF Rabbinate’s Fallen Soldiers Identification Center, in cooperation with the Medical Corps and Israel Police, after which the official notification was delivered to his family.
Yehuda Katz was born in Ramat Gan to his parents Yosef and Sarah Katz, Holocaust survivors who did not live to receive the moving news, having passed away over the years. In his childhood he showed outstanding talents in his studies, particularly in religious studies, and studied at Nehalim Yeshiva and later at Kerem B’Yavneh Yeshiva under Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht. Yehuda served as a fighter in the Armored Corps, and when the Lebanon War broke out he joined his comrades and fought in a tank alongside his commander, Lieutenant Zohar Lifshitz. He was sent to the brutal battle at Sultan Yacoub, which took place on June 11, 1982, just ten days before his scheduled discharge from the IDF.
In that battle, tank commander Zohar Lifshitz was killed—his body was returned in a 1984 exchange—while Yehuda Katz, Zechariah Baumel, and Zvi Feldman were considered missing from the battle for decades. According to Military Intelligence data, those who held the missing soldiers and information about their fate were Palestinian elements in Syria under the direction of the PLO and its leader Yasser Arafat, who led efforts of concealment and deception. Now, after 44 years of relentless attempts by the security establishment and family members, the painful circle has closed and the last fallen soldier from the Sultan Yacoub battle is being laid to rest in Jerusalem.