His parents Yaacov and Malka were active members in the British Mandate era militant group Etzel.

When Avi Lanir was 17, he returned to Israel with his family and for the year which remained before his enlistment he studied electronics at the Israeli Air Force’s technical academy.

Initially blinded, enough soot was eventually blown off his canopy to afford Lanir a safe landing at Ramat David.

The scorched aircraft earned the nickname "Black Mirage", and Lanir flew it once again during Operation Focus on June 5, 1967, when he participated in a strike against the Egyptian air base at Fayid.

[7] On October 12, 1973, a week after the Yom Kippur War began, Lanir scored his third and last aerial kill, downing a Syrian MiG-17 in the vicinity of Kuneitra while flying Mirage 58.

[8] During the Yom Kippur War, on October 13, 1973, around 11 A.M., Lanir was launched for an interception mission deep in Syrian territory.

Their fear grew because, contrary to the Syrian custom of showing captured Israeli pilots on television, Lanir was not seen in public.

To Rokah's question, Lanir replied "my situation is very severe, I have fractures in my arms and legs, they broke my bones".

[12][13][14] In a letter published for the first time in 2023, written by the commander of the Air Force in the Yom Kippur War, Benny Peled, which was addressed to the Chief of Staff Mota Gur, and the title of which is "The issue: medal awarding to the lieutenant colonel Avi Lanir".

It says: "After a long examination and encompassing about the circumstances of Avi's death in captivity in Syria, I got to the conclusion that I should recommend awarding the medal of courage to the commander of the 101 squadron.

In his position as commander of 101, lieutenant colonel Avi Lanir was a complete secret partner (in the project), and was the only one among all the prisoners from the Yom Kippur War who had such information".

Peled comes to the conclusion that the system's secrets were carefully guarded, even though Lanir was "harshly tortured and interrogated", and recommends that Michal, his widow, would receive the decoration on his behalf.

In the description of the reasons for the decoration it was stated:On the 17th of Tishrei 1973 (October 13, 1973), during a combat flight in the Golan Heights, the plane of the late Lt. Col. Avraham Lanir was damaged, and he was forced to abandon it in enemy territory.