Yehuda Katz, last missing soldier from Sultan Yacoub battle, laid to rest after 44 years

The remains of Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, an Israeli soldier who went missing during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the First Lebanon War in 1982, were laid to rest on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Friday. Katz was 22 years old when he fell and was the last of the six soldiers missing from that battle to be returned home. The funeral procession departed from Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh, the institution where he studied before being deployed to the war. His parents, Sarah and Yosef Katz, passed away before witnessing his return. The four-decade effort by the State of Israel to recover the remains of missing soldiers has involved extensive intelligence and field operations, which officials state are driven by the commitment to return every fallen soldier to a Jewish burial.