After more than seven decades of uncertainty, the final resting place of fallen IDF soldier Private Arthur Gasner has been identified, the army has confirmed.
The discovery brings long-awaited closure to his family and concludes a complex investigation by the military's Missing Persons Branch.
Gasner fell in battle on April 20, 1949, during an IDF operation near the village of Duweima – now the Israeli town of Karmei Katif.
His unit, part of the Negev Brigade’s 8th Battalion, engaged in a fierce clash with infiltrators. Twelve soldiers were killed, and three – Gasner, Gabriel Magnagi and Kalman Chepnik – were initially declared missing in action.
Subsequent intelligence and diplomatic efforts revealed that the bodies of the three soldiers had been taken by local Arab villagers to a cave in the nearby village of Idna, which was under Jordanian control at the time.
On May 6, 1949, the IDF carried out a special mission to retrieve the soldiers' remains. While two of them – Magnagi and Chepnik – were identified and buried in a mass grave at the Rehovot Military Cemetery, Gasner’s body remained officially unaccounted for.
In 2020, the IDF reopened the investigation into Gasner’s fate. A special investigative team launched a multi-year effort, combining archival research, witness interviews, soil analysis and archaeological surveys.
Their findings led to the conclusion that Gasner was, in fact, buried alongside his comrades in the Rehovot cemetery.
Last week, his family, including a surviving niece, was informed of the discovery by the IDF’s Head of Human Resources, Brigadier-General Edna Ilia. A ceremony to add Gasner’s name to the shared grave will be held soon, bringing a formal end to his status as missing in action.
"After 76 years and a professional, in-depth investigation, we now know that Arthur Gasner, the last missing soldier from the 1949 Beit Gubrin operation, rests beside his comrades," said Major-General Dado Bar Kalifa, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate. "This moment reminds us of our moral obligation to bring every soldier home and ease the pain of bereaved families."
This is the second time in a week that the IDF has identified the remains of a fallen soldier, having recently found and repatriated Sergeant Tzvi Feldman. He was killed in the First Lebanon War, but was found deep in Syrian territory.
Feldman was buried with full military honours in the Holon Military Cemetery on Monday.
