Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

German Newspaper Publishes Faces of Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza

Germany’s most widely read daily newspaper, Bild Zeitung, published the faces of the 64 Israeli soldiers killed in the current conflict in Gaza.

Together with short biographies of a few soldiers, the images appeared in the Monday edition of the paper under the headline “Israel’s War Against the Hamas Terrorists: Faces of the fallen.”

Among those profiled are Benaya Sarel, 26, who was about to marry; newlywed Liran Adir, 31; Eitan Barak, 20, the first Israeli soldier to die in Operation Protective Edge; and Matan Gotlib, 21, an avid mountain climber who was about to finish his three years of military service.

Gotlib’s brother Omer, 31, told Bild that Matan was planning to travel the world, as many young Israelis do after completing their service.

“Do you know any big brothers who look up to their little brothers? I admired you,” he said.

The report, by Anne-Christine Merholz, describes the soldiers as “64 sons, friends, husbands who will never return to their families. They died for their homeland, fighting Hamas in Gaza.”

Bild, which has a circulation of at least 3.5 million, is published by the Axel-Springer company, which has a strongly pro-Israel editorial stand. Its articles of association, which date back to 1967 and were most recently updated in 2001, include a commitment to promote reconciliation between Jews and non-Jews in Germany and to support Israel’s right to exist.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.