Memorial Day: Israelis mourn fallen soldiers, terror victims

 Israelis commemorate the 24,213 fallen soldiers and 4,255 victims of terrorism

Bereaved families and political leaders headed to cemeteries across the country on Tuesday morning as Israel marks Memorial Day. 

Israelis commemorate the 24,213 fallen soldiers and 4,255 victims of terrorism. Memorial Day began on Monday evening with a one-minute siren. A second two-minute siren will sound at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, marking the beginning of mourning ceremonies at 52 cemeteries across the county.At 8:30 a.m. a military ceremony began at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem attended by Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Director-General Eyal Zamir. The names of the fallen soldiers will be read at the site throughout the day. Another ceremony at Mount Herzl will start at 1 p.m to commemorate civilian victims of terrorist attacks

.Earlier on Tuesday morning, speaking to army radio, Gallant praised the bereaved families but criticized their calls for government officials not to attend the ceremonies amid the judicial reform turmoil. 

“A reality where we decide to banish public representatives, for one reason or another, because politics have entered this sacred place, is unbearable,” the minister said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called for unity in a video address to the bereaved families. He noted that Memorial Day “gives us all an important reminder that Israel's independence is not taken for granted.”“On this holy day we remember the sacrifice of the fallen, the terrible pain of the families, and no less than that - our being one people," he said. 

The head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency Ronan Bar spoke at the Memorial Day ceremony at the Shin Bet headquarters, noting that it takes place amid "very difficult disputes at home, the development of new threats from the outside, a sense of the convergence of arenas and the overcoming of challenges."

"And it requires us to be alert, to take initiative, to attack and to excel. In the service, the translation of the phrase 'in their death they ordered us to live' is 'in their death they passed the shift to us'," he saidNetanyahu along with President Isaac Herzog, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut will attend the main ceremony at Mount Herzl, which will be accompanied by an Air Force flyby. However, many ministers and lawmakers canceled their planned appearances, due to some bereaved families urging them to stay away from the cemeteries fearing political confrontations.