July 16 1995 – 18 Tammuz 5755
Motta Gur, tenth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, member of parliament and government minister, shot himself at home while suffering from terminal cancer. Among Gur’s many contributions to the State of Israel, he’s best remembered as the commander of the 55th reserve paratrooper unit that liberated the Old City of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Temple Mount during the Six Day War. As a result, fewer recall his stormy career as Chief of Staff. Appointed in 1974, he rebuilt the army after the losses of the Yom Kippur War, and dealt with a wave of terror attacks involving hostages in Israel and elsewhere. These included an attack on the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, the kidnapping and murder of school children from Maalot, and Operation Yonatan in which Air France passengers were rescued from the airport in Entebbe. Gur’s greatest military achievement as army chief was the 1978 Litani Operation, which pushed the Palestine Liberation terrorist organization away from Israel’s northern border in the IDF’s first major incursion into Lebanon.