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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu Visits Family of Yehuda Katz, Brought Home 44 Years After the Battle of Sultan Yacoub

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the family of Sgt. First Class Yehuda Yekutiel Katz on Wednesday, August 26, offering his condolences following the fallen soldier’s burial, the Prime Minister’s Office announced. Netanyahu told the family that he was "deeply moved" by the return of Katz’s remains to Israel, and expressed sorrow that Katz’s parents passed away before their son was brought home.

The family spoke with the Prime Minister about Katz’s character, describing him as "a Torah scholar, a man of values, and a professional and devoted fighter." Their meeting came in the days after the soldier’s long-awaited burial, held after the IDF recovered Katz’s remains in an operation in Lebanon during the week of August 17.

Katz went missing 44 years earlier during the First Lebanon War, in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub on June 11, 1982. Two other soldiers were declared missing in the same battle, and their bodies were recovered in 2019 and in 2025. With Katz's return, all three soldiers lost in that battle have now been brought home.

(JPost/VFI News)

"Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back." – Deuteronomy 30:4