Israel Marks Memorial Day With Siren, Netanyahu Links Ceremony To October 7 Attack

Israel began its Memorial Day commemoration with the sounding of a siren at 8pm on Monday.

“With the sounding of a siren at 8pm on Monday, Israel begins the commemoration of Memorial Day, remembering soldiers killed since the establishment of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine in 1860, through Israel’s many wars with its neighbours and attacks on Palestinians, up to those who died enacting its genocide in Gaza”

Al Jazeera

The day is observed every year on the 4th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, and this year it corresponded to the evening of April 20 and the day of April 21.

Al Jazeera

The Al Jazeera account describes traffic stops, silences, wreaths being laid, places of entertainment being closed, and normal programming suspended on television.

Al Jazeera says the list this year would include the names of 25,644 soldiers as well as 5,313 civilians, while “Not featured anywhere will be details of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed over the same period.”

Al Jazeera notes that in last year’s commemoration Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast the events of the day against the background of the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, which killed 1,139 Israelis.

Al Jazeera adds that Netanyahu’s remarks avoided reference to “the more than 72,000 Palestinians Israel went on to kill in Gaza during its two-year war on the besieged enclave.”

Al Jazeera says Netanyahu cast last year’s Memorial Day against the background of the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.

Al Jazeera quotes Netanyahu: “From disintegrating Rafah to the high peak of Mount Hermon [Syria’s Jabal al-Sheikh], our sons and daughters are not willing to accept what the monsters did when they attacked us,”.

Haaretz

Al Jazeera quotes Netanyahu: “They are determined to do justice with the perpetrators of the massacre and the horrors, and even in these very moments, they endanger themselves to create the conditions that will allow the return of all of our hostages and victory over our enemies,”.

Al Jazeera says critics argue these narratives consolidated into a nationalism with little patience for questions or dissent.

Hassan Jabareen is quoted saying, “For Palestinians, this day is a tragedy. This is why we have a very different vision of it,“.

Al Jazeera adds that for Palestinians, Memorial Day and Independence Day “just bring back memories of the Nakba.”

Al Jazeera quotes 18-year-old Allon Rivner from northern Israel about expectations for Memorial Day.

“With the sounding of a siren at 8pm on Monday, Israel begins the commemoration of Memorial Day, remembering soldiers killed since the establishment of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine in 1860, through Israel’s many wars with its neighbours and attacks on Palestinians, up to those who died enacting its genocide in Gaza”

Al Jazeera

Rivner said, “There’s an expectation that the day should only be about the Israeli dead, so people don’t like it when you try to talk about Palestinians.”

Rivner said he was “currently volunteering” and had been asked to talk to younger people about what Memorial Day means.

Rivner said, “That’s just one example. There are more. I think people just don’t like the idea that these soldiers might have died for nothing.”

Rivner added, “Look, my grandmother’s brother was killed in the 1973 war, and I have no problem saying he died in vain. All of these deaths are in vain.”

Hassan Jabareen is quoted saying, “For Israelis, it’s a day of remembering their soldiers, but for Palestinians, Memorial Day and the day that follows it, Independence Day, just bring back memories of the Nakba.”

Al Jazeera says complaints are increasing that Memorial Day is becoming more politicised as Israel’s far-right and settler communities play an increasingly vocal role in government.

It quotes Bezalel Smotrich warning that the fighting would only halt after “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had been successfully displaced from Gaza and that Syria had been partitioned.

Haaretz

Al Jazeera says attempts to mark Memorial Day in a manner that acknowledges the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed have suffered in the face of official resistance and right-wing threats.

It says governments attempted to ban Palestinians from attending the joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremonies.

It says activists threatened such ceremonies and those who attend.

It says this year, the event has been reduced to being held online, and quotes Hassan Jabareen: “For Palestinians, this day is a tragedy. This is why we have a very different vision of it,“.

Haaretz reports that “The Israel Police have closed the case against rightist activists who assaulted people attending a screening of a joint Israeli-Palestinian ceremony on Memorial Day in Ra'anana last year.”

“With the sounding of a siren at 8pm on Monday, Israel begins the commemoration of Memorial Day, remembering soldiers killed since the establishment of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine in 1860, through Israel’s many wars with its neighbours and attacks on Palestinians, up to those who died enacting its genocide in Gaza”

Al Jazeera

Haaretz says “no one involved was brought to trial.”

Al Jazeera

The Haaretz article is dated April 21 2026 IDT and lists Bar Peleg at 06:38 AM.

Al Jazeera says this year, the event has been reduced to being held online.

Al Jazeera describes official attempts to ban Palestinians from attending joint Israeli-Palestinian memorial ceremonies.

Haaretz’s procedural outcome contrasts with the escalation and threats described by Al Jazeera around joint ceremonies.