An unusual Remembrance Day ceremony in the north took place once again this year. Unlike other ceremonies held throughout Israel, to get to this particular one, you needed a mask, fins, and scuba tank.
This is because this was a memorial to the 12 soldiers of Shayetet 13 (Israeli Navy SEALS) who died in a Hezbollah ambush in 1997 outside of the village of Ansariya. They were killed after Hezbollah hacked into signals coming from drones hovering in the area, enabling the terror organization to set up an ambush.
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Underwater memorial for 12 Israeli naval commandos killed in 1997 (Photo: Shevi Rotman)
(צילום: שבי רוטמן)
The memorial was set up on the wreck of the "Kidon" Sa'ar class missile boat. The boat was purposefully sunk a two miles off the coast of Nahariya for the purpose of providing an additional scuba diving attraction in the north of the country.
This year, over one hundred scuba divers went 90 feet underwater and set up the memorial at the prow of the ship. They placed Israeli flags and 12 chairs representing each of the 12 soldiers who died during the operation.
Yair Yam, owner of the "Potzker" dive club in Nahariya organized the commemoration event.
"We're people of the sea, and every year we go down to the site to pay respects to those who enable us to live our day to day lives in peace and security," he said.
"We live the same way they lived—on the sea," he added. "What's special about our memorial ceremony is that it lives and breathes. It stays alive with the multitude of scuba divers who visit the site at the bottom of the sea every year. With every dive to the ship and the memorial, we see that life continues; marine life uses the site as its home, sea plants thrive there, and even the dive site itself changes due to the changing currents."