Halabi began his mandatory military service in the IDF in the Israeli Air Force at a Be'er sheva campus of the Israeli Air and Space Technical College but had difficulties serving at the place and as a result he lowered his Medical Profile and was transferred to serve in a vehicle workshop of the Ordnance Corps, at a maintenance and rehabilitation (מרכז שיקום ואחזקה) base located near Haifa.
[3] Halabi disappeared on Tuesday, May 24, 2005, while he attempted to hitchhike from his village to his Ordnance Corps camp near Tirat Carmel, without carrying any weapons.
Various officers involved in the case claimed after the fact that there were a number of contradictions in the testimonies of his family members regarding his apparel, and the day and time he was last seen.
[9] As part of the effort to find any information that would eventually lead to solving the mystery of his absence, his family offered a reward for any information that would be given of his whereabouts, and the organization Born to Freedom Foundation [he], that aims to accelerate the release of IDF POWs and missing soldiers, began publishing the case widely in order to bring public awareness to Halabi's disappearance.
[8] The event was attended by a large crowd, including many Druze military officers, the Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and Karnit Goldwasser (the wife of the kidnapped IDF soldier Ehud Goldwasser) who spoke in the event, and Zvi Regev who is the father of the kidnapped soldier Eldad Regev.
[12] In 2010, the killer of 18-year-old Danna Bennett, Yahya Adwan Farhan (יחיא עדואן פרחאן), stated in an interview with Ma'ariv that he knows what caused the disappearance of Majdi Halabi, but declined to provide further information.
[13] In April 2012, it was reported that two prisoners serving sentences for murder and drug-related offenses were negotiating a plea bargain to supply the burial location of Halabi in return for being freed as well as a few hundred thousand shekels.
Halabi's childhood friend, Ibrahim Kozly of Daliyat al-Karmel, discovered his body while performing clearing work for the Jewish National Fund as part of the Carmel Forest's rehabilitation project.
[15] The body was transferred to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, where DNA testing confirmed that it was Halabi's.