14 Days: Fallen soldiers

Elad Fingerhut, 38, was killed and three soldiers were wounded in a Hezbollah missile attack on an IDF position near Kibbutz Adamit on May 14. Fingerhut, a father of three, arrived at the scene to aid soldiers wounded by a Hezbollah missile and was fatally wounded by a second one. Later that day, an IAF aircraft killed Hezbollah field commander Hussain Ibrahim Mekky in Lebanon’s Tyre area. The IDF said he had been responsible for many attacks against Israeli civilians and homes.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a harrowing three-minute video on May 22 of the abduction of five female IDF soldiers from the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza border by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, describing it as a “damning testament to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages.” The video was filmed by body cameras worn by Hamas terrorists as they abducted Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy, all five of whom are still being held in Gaza. “The world must look at this cruel atrocity,” President Isaac Herzog said. “Those who care about women’s rights must speak out. All those who believe in freedom must speak out, and do everything possible to bring all of the hostages home now.”

The International Court of Justice ordered Israel on May 24 to “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”  On May 20, International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Kahn announced that he had asked the ICC in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in the Gaza Strip. He also applied for arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh on charges of war crimes in Israel. A three-judge panel was slated to decide whether to issue the arrest warrants.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian died in a helicopter crash on May 19, state media reported. Raisi was returning from the inauguration of a dam on Iran’s border with the Azerbaijan Republic when his helicopter crashed upon landing in northern Iran’s Varzaqan region, according to state news agency IRNA.

Yael Dayan, who served as a member of Knesset for the Labor party from 1992 to 2003, died on May 18 at 85 after a battle with lung disease. Dayan, the daughter of war hero Moshe Dayan, later represented Meretz on the Tel Aviv City Council and served as deputy mayor. She first made a name for herself as a journalist, and published five novels, as well as a memoir of the Six Day War and a book on Moshe Dayan, My Father, His Daughter. She is survived by two children and four grandchildren.” Yael fought her entire life for peace and human rights and loved Israel very much,” her family said in a statement. “Until the last moment, she never lost hope that we would still have a good, peaceful life here.”