As Israel set to mark Memorial Day, casualty count rises with new losses in Lebanon

Israel will mark Memorial Day on April 21, honoring those killed in action in its wars as well as victims of terrorist attacks.

The National Insurance Institute released updated statistics on Thursday showing that since 1860, 25,644 Israeli fighters have been killed in action. Since then, two more soldiers have been killed in Lebanon. Their names will be added to the 170 killed in action since Memorial Day 2025, along with 54 disabled veterans who died as a result of their injuries and were recognized as fallen service members.

The Defense Ministry also tracks bereaved family members, and as of this week, that number stands at 59,583, including 8,420 bereaved parents, 4,872 widows, 14,430 orphans, 31,814 bereaved siblings, 12 fiancées, and 35 guardians.

Since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, 1,017 civilians have lost their lives, including 79 in the past year. Many of those were killed by incoming rockets and missiles from Hezbollah and Iran.

The National Insurance added that there are currently 99,156 individuals in Israel who are registered as survivors of terrorist attacks, while 14,815 bereaved family members are being cared for by the Institute, including 4,932 orphans.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, memorial events will be held at IDF cemeteries around the country, subject to Home Front Command guidelines in light of the ongoing security situation.

Although the State of Israel was founded in 1948, the Defense Ministry counts casualties going back to 1860, the year the first Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem outside the walls of the Old City began to be constructed. During this period of construction, the first violent clashes erupted between Jewish workers and a band of armed Arab men who opposed what they were seeing.

The name of the first Jewish casualty from those initial skirmishes of what later became called “The Arab-Israeli conflict” was not recorded at the time, and historians are not in unanimous agreement about which of these incidents should count as the very “first” one. But 1860 is universally regarded as the year in which it began, and that is when the casualty count starts.

By contrast, the year 1851 marks the starting point for the civilian death toll. According to the National Insurance Institute, that number stands at 5,313, most of which – 4,587 – occurred after the establishment of the State in 1948. This figure includes 810 children and teenagers who have lost their lives in terrorist attacks and war-related violence.

In just the past several days, two IDF soldiers have been killed in action in southern Lebanon. Sgt. First Class (res.) Lidor Porat, 31, from Ashdod, was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Lebanon on Saturday evening. Several other IDF soldiers were wounded in the incident, which occurred despite the official ceasefire.

Warrant Officer (res.) Barak Kalfon, 48, was killed in action in southern Lebanon on April 17 in another IED explosion that wounded several of his comrades.