Following the government’s decision to officially call last summer’s war “The Second Lebanon War,” the Defense Ministry began changing the captions on the tombstones of fallen soldiers on Tuesday. Gravestones will be changed from “died at battle” to “died at war.”
One hundred and nineteen soldiers were killed during last summer’s war against Hizballah in Lebanon.
At the beginning of the week, Defense Ministry officials asked the bereaved families how they felt about changing the captions. Currently, there are more than 73 families who’ve agreed to change it. Only five families asked that their relatives’ gravestones remain untouched. Forty-one families have yet to give their answer or were unreachable.
All captions on the gravestones of fallen soldiers whose families approved the move will be completely changed by Memorial Day, a day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims, which is next Monday.
Since the end of the war, many bereaved parents have demanded that the caption “died at war” appear on their loved ones’ tombstones.