Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the remains of Armored Corps soldier Sgt. First Class Yehuda Yekutiel Katz were retrieved in a special operation by the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad.
Katz, 22, fell in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub on June 11, 1982, during the First Lebanon War. He was one of three Israeli soldiers who went missing following the battle. The remains of the other two, Sgt. Zachary Baumel and Sgt. Zvi Feldman, were recovered in 2019 and 2025, respectively.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said in a statement that over the years he has promised their families that Jerusalem would never stop working to bring them home.
He shared that the parents of Katz—Sarah and Yosef—never stopped working to locate their missing son, “but sadly, they have since passed away.”
Addressing his surviving siblings, Avi and Perchia, Netanyahu said, “We return your beloved Yehuda—to you and to the soil of the Land of Israel, which he loved so dearly.”
The premier moreover thanked the IDF, the Mossad, the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the government’s Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch, “for their many years of efforts and for their determined and courageous work to bring Yehuda home, as well as to bring back all our missing and abducted—both the living and the fallen.”
President Isaac Herzog welcomed the news, posting on X in the Hebrew language, “After 44 years of waiting, pain and longing, missing soldier Yehuda Katz has come home and will be laid to rest in Israel. With his return, the circle left open as a bleeding wound since the Battle of Sultan Yacoub has finally been closed.”
He went on to say that Katz’s image has accompanied himself and the State of Israel for decades, adding that the soldier’s photograph hangs in his office at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
It is “our sacred duty to bring our sons home and leave no one behind,” Herzog continued.
“Today, I am thinking especially of his sister, Perchia, and the entire family, who carried his memory and the hope of his return for decades and fought tirelessly to ensure that the State of Israel would not forget Yehuda. I embrace her and the entire family at this painful and moving moment.”
Zamir: ‘We will leave none of our people behind’
On June 11, 1982, IDF forces of the 362nd Battalion found themselves surrounded by Syrian forces near the village of Sultan Yacoub in the Lebanese Bekaa. A battle of about 10 hours ensued, with the Israeli forces attempting to escape southward with the help of heavy artillery firing.
Twenty soldiers were killed and more than 30 were wounded. An additional five went missing, among them Katz, Baumel and Feldman, as well as Sgt. Ariel Lieberman, and tank commander Sgt. First Class Hezi Shai.
Lieberman was released alive in a prisoner exchange in 1984 and Shai was redeemed alive—along with two other Israeli soldiers—in 1985 in return for 1,150 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners held by Israel at the time. The agreement was settled between Israel and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a nationalist Palestinian group headed by Ahmed Jibril.
On Tuesday, the IDF said in a statement that the recovery of Katz’s remains “marks a long-awaited conclusion of the search efforts,” noting that the mission to return all of the missing soldiers from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub has now been completed.
An identification process of Katz’s remains was conducted at the Military Rabbinate’s Fallen Soldiers Identification Center, in cooperation with the Medical Corps and Israel Police, the IDF said.
“His return to Israel was made possible through efforts based on precise intelligence, as part of a series of intelligence and operational activities that continued for more than four decades, since his fall in battle,” the army added.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir labeled Katz’s return home “a significant milestone for the IDF and the State of Israel.”
“Decades have passed, but our obligation to those who fell has not changed—we will leave none of our people behind,” he pledged, adding that “The memory of the soldiers who fell at Sultan Yacoub will forever remain part of the IDF’s legacy and our commitment to future generations.”
Israel continues to search for two other missing servicemen: Lt. Col. Ron Arad, who was last seen after parachuting from a damaged aircraft over Lebanon on Oct. 16, 1986, and Sgt. Guy Hever, who disappeared from his army base in the Golan Heights on Aug. 17, 1997.
