Har Herzl military cemetery held the Flags for the Fallen ceremony Sunday, in a tradition preceding Memorial Day wherein the IDF places Israeli flags on the graves of fallen soldiers. 

The ceremony was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkott, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, and Israel Prisons Service Commissioner Lt. Gen. Ofra Klinger. 

After the flag-laying, Eizenkott saluted the fallen soldiers, in memory of all of the soldiers who fell in Israel’s wars – some 23,447 of them. 

The ceremony, in its fifteenth year, has become a tradition that seeks to respect and honor the fallen soldiers who paid with their lives the price for protecting the safety and security of the State of Israel.

“Tonight flags will be placed on the graves of fallen soldiers in Israel, adorned with a black ribbon – a symbol of the loss and pain involved in the revival of our nation,” said Eizenkot.

”On behalf of all of Israel, soldiers, together with members of youth movements, will move among the tombstones and will place the flag at the foot of each name, in memory of each of the fallen.”