A memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers takes place on Tuesday afternoon at Yad Lebanim in Jerusalem, in the presence of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, Chief Rabbis of Israel and bereaved families.

In his speech, the Prime Minister said that "the light of the memorial candle that is being lit today throughout Israel radiates over the remaining 364 days a year, one day compared to 364 and is equivalent to them, because for the sake of our sons and daughters, because of our fallen loved ones whose memory stings our souls, our lives are opened and our state exists. Without them we would not be here today."

Netanyahu added that "today we bow our heads and honor our 23,741 Jewish, Druze, Muslim, Christian, Bedouin and Circassian victims, including the thousands of victims of the hostilities, including four innocent civilians killed earlier this week by the terrorists in Gaza. We are not eager to fight, but we know that the willingness to sacrifice is the guarantee of our fate."

"Every fallen dead wounds our hearts," said the prime minister. "They often tell me that relatives of the fallen - after receiving the bitter news - have to learn to breathe air all over again because the suffocation in the throat keeps coming all the time day and night, and there really is no clear explanation of how we can face this fact. On the one hand, we continue our daily life, and on the other hand, there is hardly a day when we are not overwhelmed by the memories of the light shining from the faces of our loved ones, the smile they smiled on, the words they said, the things they did, as if they are here with us."

"But they are not with us, and every time in the midst of such memories, the hole is reopened and with it the burning pain, and it is impossible not to think about what would have happened to them in the rest of their lives.

"There are so many questions, and who but you knows that the challenge of coping is not only at the moment of the threat that can not be described at all in the acceptance of the news, nor in the year after it, the struggle is for life. So how do we go on? Perhaps each and every one of you finds your unique way of dealing with bereavement, but if there is something that unites many of us and perhaps all of us, it is the internalization of the great mission that our loved ones have filled and that gives us a lot of strength to endure the journey of grief."

At 20:00, a memorial siren will be sounded all over the country, marking the start of Memorial Day for fallen IDF soldiers and victims of hostilities.