Hundreds of members of bereaved families attended the main national event on the eve of Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Hostilities. The annual "Songs in Their Memory" was held Tuesday evening in the presence of Knesset Speaker Yuli Yoel Edelstein, President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, Labor Minister Haim Katz, IDF Chief Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, and other dignitaries.

The main national event on the eve of the Day of Remembrance, a joint initiative of the Knesset, the Defense Ministry`s Families and Commemoration Department and the National Insurance Institute`s Division for Victims of Terror Attacks, was held in the presence of Speaker of the Knesset MK Yuli Yoel Edelstein (Likud), President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister and Defense Minister MK Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, with the participation of Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Haim Katz (Likud), IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi (this was the first time an IDF chief of staff takes part in the event), Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, acting Israel Police Commissioner Major General Moti Cohen and acting chief of the Israel Prison Service Commissioner Asher Vaknin. The dignitaries read poems in memory of the fallen and, for the first time, laid roses on the memorial boulder in the Knesset's courtyard, located beside the memorial for Israel's fallen soldiers. 

The following artists performed at the event: The Shalva Band, Shiri Maimon, Yonatan Razel, Natan Goshen, Shai Abramson, Shimon Buskila and Noy Levi, whose brother, Staff Sergeant Aviv Levi, was killed by sniper fire last year. She performed with the army bands. The ceremony concluded with a performance by Harel Skaat, who was joined by IDF orphans.

During the event, films depicting the stories of the following individuals were screened:

• ­Elad Ram, of blessed memory, an army reserves soldier who fell during the Second Lebanon War. During exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah, Elad refused to be evacuated despite suffering severe loss of hearing. He helped evacuate his injured comrades and continued to fight. On the last day of the war, two anti-tank missiles were fired towards Elad and a group of soldiers, and he was killed on the spot. Elad was posthumously awarded the Head of Regional Command Citation (Tzalash Aluf Pikud).

• The Shabo family, of blessed memory: On June 20, 2002, a terrorist infiltrated the community of Itamar at around 9 pm, broke into the home of the Shabo family and murdered the mother and three of her sons, and injured two other children. The father was not home at the time of the attack. Asael Shabo, who was nine-years-old and lost his right leg in the attack, remained committed to becoming an athlete. He took up swimming, first as a therapeutic activity and then as a competitor. Eventually, he turned to wheelchair basketball, and is now on Israel's national wheelchair basketball team.
  
   
• Aviv Levi, of blessed memory, a 20-year-old Givati Brigade fighter from Petach Tikva, was the first IDF soldier to be killed on the Gaza border since the end of Operation Protective Edge. He was killed by a Hamas sniper during a Palestinian riot along the border.
  
   
•  Solomon Gavriya, Youssef Ottman and Or Arish, of blessed memory: Border Police Officer St. Sgt. Solomon Gavriya was born in Ethiopia and made Aliyah in 1999. On October 15, 2016, he was injured in a stabbing attack, but, following his recovery, insisted on returning to duty. On September 26, 2007, Solomon was killed in a terrorist attack in Har Adar. The terrorist held a work permit allowing him to work in Har Adar, but when he aroused the suspicions of the security personnel he drew his weapon and began firing, killing Gavriya and two civilian security guards, Youssef Ottman and Or Arish.
  
   
• Amiad Yisrael Ish-Ran, of blessed memory: On December 9, 2018, Palestinian terrorists in a passing car opened fire at Israeli civilians waiting at a bus stop and hitchhiking post outside the community of Ofra. Shira Ish Ran was seriously wounded in the attack, and her husband Amichai suffered moderate injuries. Shira had been 30 weeks pregnant at the time of the attack. The baby was delivered prematurely in an emergency C-section after the attack, but died three days later. He was named Amiad Yisrael.
  
   
• Eyal Weiss, of blessed memory: Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Weiss, commander of the elite IDF Duvdevan unit, was killed on February 15, 2002 during an operation to arrest Islamic Jihad members in the village of Saida, near Tulkarm. During the operation, one of the Islamic Jihad members barricaded himself in his home and exchanged fire with the troops. Soldiers ordered him to exit his house, and when he wouldn't they began demolishing it with a bulldozer. This prompted the terrorist to surrender. Weiss arrested the Islamic Jihad member and brought him across the street behind a cement wall for questioning, as soldiers continued destroying the house. In a freak occurrence, the roof of the house was flung and hit the wall, causing it to collapse on Weiss, killing him instantly.
  
   
• Yakir Naveh, of blessed memory: Lt. Yakir Naveh was a fighter pilot and instructor at the Israel Air Force Flight Academy. On May 6, 1962, Naveh and IAF cadet Oded ‎Cotton embarked on a training ‎flight on a ‎single-engine Fouga Magister. While flying over the ‎Sea of Galilee, their plane flew too low over the ‎‎water and the engine failed, jolting the aircraft ‎and causing its nose ‎to hit the water. ‎This sent the Fouga into a fierce spin from which ‎they could not recover, crashing into the lake‏.‏ Cotton's body was found a year later near the ‎wreckage of the plane, but there was no sign of ‎Naveh and he was ‎declared a fallen soldier whose ‎burial place ‎is unknown.‎ On October 16, 2018, the military began its 12th search round for the pilot's remains‏‎, which were ‎eventually discovered on October 25, 56 years after the crash, on the bottom of ‎the Sea of Galilee, along with more pieces of the aircraft‏.‏