IDF determines soldier killed in 1949 was buried in Rehovot grave with comrades
5-year investigation identifies remains of Pvt. Arthur Gasner, 76 years after he was killed in action; he was listed as fallen but missing
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF announced Thursday that it recently determined that a soldier killed in 1949, who until now had been considered missing, was buried in a grave with two of his comrades in Rehovot.
Pvt. Arthur Gasner was killed in action on April 20, 1949, in the Lachish area, during an operation carried out by the Negev Brigade, and was listed as a fallen soldier whose burial site is unknown.
“Following a strenuous investigation led by the missing persons department in the IDF’s casualty division, which lasted over five years, his burial place was found,” the IDF said.
The military said its investigation included “document analysis, witness interrogation, soil analysis, and archaeological surveys.”
“After 76 years and following a thorough and professional investigation, we have the privilege of determining that the late Arthur Gasner, the last missing person from the operation in Beit Guvrin in 1949, is buried in the military cemetery in Rehovot along with his comrades in arms,” said Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate.
“May their memory be blessed,” he added.
According to the army’s investigation, 12 soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with Arab infiltrators in the Lachish area, three of whom were initially declared missing: Gasner, Pvt. Gabriel Magnaji, and Pvt. Kalman Chepnik.
It was later revealed that their bodies were taken by Arabs to a cave near the Palestinian town of Idhna, which at the time was in Jordanian territory.
On May 6, 1949, IDF troops recovered the bodies of Magnaji and Kalman, while Gasner’s burial place was thought to be unknown.
In 2020, the IDF relaunched its investigation into Gasner’s disappearance and found that his body was buried alongside Magnaji’s and Chepnik’s in Rehovot’s cemetery, in central Israel.
Last week, the IDF notified Gasner’s family that the investigation had concluded. The military said it will soon hold a ceremony to add a headstone with Gasner’s name on it to the burial site.
Gasner was born in the Czech Republic in 1925, and fought in World War II as a partisan. He moved to Israel in 1948.
The announcement about efforts to identify Gasner’s remains comes days after officials announced that the Mossad spy agency and the IDF last week recovered the remains of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, who went missing in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982.
The battle, nearly 43 years ago, was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, and more than 30 were injured during it.
Feldman, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle along with Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz and Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel. Baumel’s remains were recovered and returned to Israel in 2019.
“For decades, Zvika was missing, and the efforts to locate him, along with the other missing soldiers from that same battle, never ceased for a moment,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Hostages Forum, which represents the majority of relatives of those held captive in Gaza, said they are sending a “big hug to the Feldman family and to every family that is privileged to bring their loved one to burial.”
“The return of Zvi Feldman is a moral, ethical and national reminder to the prime minister and members of the government — a grave is not a privilege, but a basic duty of the state to its citizens and fighters. In Israel, no one is left behind,” it said. “As a society, we must not normalize a situation in which families have to wait over 40 years or more to be reunited with their loved ones.”
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, one of whom is a soldier killed a decade ago. Israel has said there are serious concerns for the lives of a further three.
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