Israel marked 11 years since the Second Lebanon War with a state service held at the National Memorial Hall on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Monday. President Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan and Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger were among those in attendance at the ceremony, at which 121 memorial candles were lit in honor of the 121 soldiers who were killed in the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah. "The lessons of the war continue to be implemented during routine conditions and in times of emergency, which to our deep regret have continued to occur," Rivlin said. "The war at home brought with it quiet to the communities of the north, but we must not mistake it. The threat is still great. ... If a battle is forced on us, we will defend our independence fiercely." Also on Monday, Col. Max Nudelman, who was Gaza Division's chief engineering officer during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and was seriously wounded when Hamas terrorists detonated a bomb inside a tunnel he and his troops were trying to destroy, was promoted to the position of chief engineering officer for the IDF Central Command. He is currently wrapping up his role as commander of the 603rd Armored Engineering Battalion. During the 2014 Gaza campaign, Nudelman worked to prioritize systems and teams for destroying the tunnels that were discovered. He admitted that, in hindsight, it would have been possible to defuse the threat from Hamas' terror tunnels if the IDF had bombed them ahead of the operation. "Today, the IDF is in a completely different place, even in the vast distribution of the system, even in the broad dispersion," he told Israel Hayom. "These are no longer individual measures. There is no training today that does not involve underground warfare."
Israel marks 11 years since Second Lebanon War
At state ceremony in Jerusalem, 121 memorial candles are lit to honor Israeli soldiers killed in 2006 conflict • President Rivlin warns of deceptive calm on northern border, says, "If a battle is forced on us, we will defend our independence fiercely."
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