Hundreds gathered at the Holon military cemetery near Tel Aviv on Monday to honor the memory of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, whose remains were recovered from Syria and returned to Israel nearly 43 years after he went missing during the First Lebanon War.

Feldman, who had been listed as missing in action since 1982, was finally laid to rest following a daring operation conducted deep inside Syria by the Israel Defense Forces in cooperation with the Mossad intelligence agency. The IDF announced the successful repatriation of his body on Sunday.

The funeral began with Feldman’s brothers, Yitzhak and Shlomo, reciting Kaddish, the Jewish mourners’ prayer, before his sister Anat delivered a moving eulogy.

“The long journey of my life as the sister of a missing soldier began that Saturday,” she said, recalling the moment her brother was called up to the front lines. “You said to Itzik: ‘Don’t be afraid of the battle, it will be okay.’”

She spoke of their final moments together before his disappearance, describing how she and Zvi both wore their uniforms and headed south—she as a conscript, he as a reservist. After he went missing, she said, the army offered to release her from service, but she refused. “I wanted you to be proud of me.”

“My beloved brother Zvika, you returned to us, to the homeland you loved so much,” Anat said through tears. “You are being buried as a warrior who died defending the Land of Israel and our people. I am so proud of you.”

Feldman’s recovery closes a decades-long chapter of uncertainty for his family and for Israel, which has continued efforts to bring home all missing soldiers from past conflicts. His return was hailed as a moral victory and a reminder of the country’s unbreakable bond with its fallen and missing soldiers.