Israel recovers the remains of soldier Yehuda Katz after 44 years

The Israeli defense establishment confirmed that it has secured the remains of Yehuda Katz, an Israeli soldier who fell during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the first Lebanon war of 1982. Katz was one of three troops declared missing after the intense fighting, and his relatives had refused to accept the military’s earlier assessment of his death because no remains had been found. The ministry did not reveal where the recovery took place or how it was carried out.

This find joins previous recoveries of missing soldiers Zachary Baumel, whose body was returned with Russian assistance in 2019, and Zvi Feldman, whose remains were obtained in a covert Mossad operation in 2025. The battle, one of the fiercest of the 1982 conflict, resulted in heavy Israeli casualties and a subsequent prisoner exchange that returned two other missing soldiers. Over the years, Israeli intelligence pursued leads from Palestinian groups linked to the PLO and its former commander Abu Jihad, who was killed in a 1988 raid in Tunis.