IDF says it has determined soldier killed in 1949 was buried in Rehovot grave with comrades

The IDF has 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 says.

According to the army’s investigation, 12 soldiers were killed in the 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.

Last week, the IDF notified Gasner’s family that the investigation had concluded. The military says 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.