Tomb of Israeli General Moshe Dayan Vandalized

Vandals daubed offensive graffiti on the grave of celebrated Israeli general and war veteran Moshe Dayan overnight, his family said on Tuesday.

Dayan, who served as defense minister during the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippor, died of a heart attack exactly 31 years ago, on October 16, 1981, and was buried in a cemetery in Nahalal moshav near the northern city of Nazareth.

Overnight, vandals attacked the grave, spray painting the tombstone with Hebrew graffiti reading: "The minister of failure, in the name of the fallen" in reference to the troops who died during the 1973 campaign, Israel's army radio reported.

Speaking to the radio, his daughter Yael Dayan said the family was used to such attacks around October, the month when the war happened, and said she believed it was the work of families who were still grieving their loved ones.

"Perhaps it was done by a grieving family that lost someone during the Yom Kippor War and is still looking for someone to blame," she said, expressing hope the police would find the perpetrators.

During the 1973 campaign, some 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed when Egyptian troops from the Sinai and Syrian soldiers attacking on the Golan Heights surprised the Israeli army on October 6, 1973.

Dayan, who was lionized after Israel's victory in 1967, was quickly vilified as a "murderer" by parents of soldiers who fell in the Yom Kippor War.

Israel won the war after 19 days, but Yom Kippor remains a black day in the history of the Jewish state's famed military intelligence services, which failed to notice Egypt and Syria had massed forces along the borders.