JERUSALEM (RNS) — The same-sex partners of fallen Israeli soldiers will now be recognized as widows or widowers after a legislative change approved by lawmakers. The development comes as more than 360,000 post-army reservists have been called up to fight in the ongoing war with Hamas.Israel’s Knesset voted Nov. 6 to expand the Families of Fallen Soldiers Law to include the common-law partners of LGBTQ members of the Israel Defense Forces. Previously, the law had included partners within opposite-sex common-law marriages as well as those in religiously recognized marriages. The amendment removes gender designations.
The vote came nearly a month after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and murdered an estimated 1,200 civilians and soldiers, and kidnapped 240 others. The attack prompted Israel to mobilize hundreds of thousands of military reservists as they prepared for a retaliatory ground invasion into the Gaza Strip.
The ensuing war — which has claimed the lives of at least 46 Israeli soldiers since the ground attack began in Gaza, in addition to those killed in the initial Hamas attack, according to IDF, and more than 11,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry — has shown little sign of stopping and the reservists have been given few indications of when they may return to normal life.
Many career soldiers and reservists are in their 30s or …
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