Almost three years ago, on the morning of July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched "Operation True Promise”, which began with a diversionary attack of rockets and mortar shells fired at Israeli border towns and military posts near the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah troops then entered Israel, attacked two armoured Israeli jeeps with rocket-propelled grenades, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. An Israeli tank stationed nearby attempted a rescue, but all four crew members were killed when they drove over an explosive device. Another Israeli soldier died as he tried to retrieve the bodies from the destroyed tank.

The kidnapped soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, became household names over the following two years as their families bravely campaigned for their release. The campaign came to tragic end almost exactly one year ago, when their bodies were returned to Israel.

The soldiers who were killed, and those who were killed in the rescue attempt on July 12 2006 are rarely mentioned, however. Yesterday, 16 Tamuz, was the Hebrew date of the attack which sparked the Second Lebanon War, so here are the names of all those killed on that day, to mark their third yahrzeit.

Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Eyal Benin, 22, of Beersheba, Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Shani Turgeman, 24, of Beit Shean and Sgt.-Maj. Wassim Nazal, 26, of Yanuah were killed in the IDF patrol jeeps.

St.-Sgt. Alexei Kushnirski, 21, of Nes Ziona, St.-Sgt. Yaniv Bar-on, 20, of Maccabim,
Sgt. Gadi Mosayev, 20, of Akko and Sgt. Shlomi Yirmiyahu, 20, of Rishon Lezion were killed when their tank was blown apart by a mine during a rescue attempt.

Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, 19, of Mitzpeh Shalem, was killed during efforts to retrieve the bodies of the tank crew members.