IDF Manpower chief Elazar Stern concluded 34 years of service in the IDF Thursday night, noting he was proud to be part of the operation that returned the bodies of kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev before leaving the army.

He learned in yeshiva but has been highly controversial as a result of attempts to force yeshiva students to serve in units with female soldiers. The national religious movement highboy criticized him for cooperating in the expulsion of Jews from their homes in the Gaza and northern Samaria regions.