Slain soldier considered missing since 1948 found in mass grave in north — IDF

The military announced Wednesday that it recently determined that a soldier killed in Israel’s War of Independence, who until now had been considered missing, was in fact buried in a mass grave in a northern kibbutz.

Pvt. Dov Parmet was killed in action on June 5, 1948, when the 1st Company of the Oded Brigade’s 11th Battalion encountered and battled a Syrian-Lebanese enemy force near Kibbutz Malkia on the Lebanese border.

Following the battle, Parmet was listed as a fallen soldier whose burial site was unknown.

“After years of intensive efforts to locate findings for his return to burial, in 2020, a special investigation team was established, which carried out numerous and diverse investigative actions to locate Parmet’s burial place,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF said its investigation included “document analysis, witness interrogation, soil analysis and archaeological surveys.”

The investigation led to the conclusion that Parmet was buried in a mass grave in Kibbutz Maoz Haim, near the Jordanian border, alongside 16 other soldiers slain during the 1948 battles at Malkia.

Last night, Parmet’s family, including his niece, were updated on the military’s findings by Adjutant Corps Chief Brig. Gen. Edna Ilia.

The IDF said that in the near future, an official ceremony will be held to add a headstone with Parmet’s name to the military cemetery at Maoz Haim.

In a statement, his family said, “For us, this is an ‘exodus’ from the uncertainty and darkness of years of a lack of information about the fate of Dov Parmet’s body,” referencing the biblical story of the exodus from Egypt on the eve of the Passover festival.

Shmuel Bernstein, Yaakov Leibovitz, Shmuel Moldavsky, Yitzhak Glick and Shlomo Kron are the names of the fallen soldiers who fought at Malkia and have yet to be located.