President Reuven Rivlin spoke at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the fall of the Lamed Hey, 35 fighters who attempted to relieve the Etzion Bloc during the War of Independence and were ambushed and fell fighting near the bloc.
Rivlin said that the biggest trauma of the war was the fall of the 35: "They were our best boys, our future. The best of the best. The future of the state was on their shoulders. We trusted these heroes to turn things in our favor in the beleaguered Etzion bloc, and they fell in battle. There wasn't a neighborhood in Jerusalem which didn't have one of the 35. Everyone saw the disaster as a personal tragedy."