" On the eve of the 4th of February 1997 Israelis found themselves anxiously glued to news flashes on television and radio. On that fateful eve, 73 IDF servicemen perished in a tragic collision between two Sikorsky helicopters over Sha'ar Yishuv in the country's north. For a nation that has long experienced disaster and loss of life, civilian and millitary, the Sha'ar Yishuv tragedy surpassed anything Israelis had known. Overnight, the nation was engulfed in a terrible sense of loss and bereavement, as 73 families laid their sons to rest."

"As a photojournalist, I did not photograph the Sha'ar Yishuv accident. Documentation of the terrible carnage was honorably performed by my colleagues in the north. But, over the next two or three days, I was assigned to photograph the mourning of some 20 families, and an equal number of millitary funerals, a task that put to test the sensitivity of the most experienced and weary of photojournalists. I can only hope that I performed honorably and with sensitivity. I believe I did, as may be attested by an ongoing connection with some of those families, a year and half after that tragic eve at Sha'ar Yishuv on Israel's northern border."