Copyright 2003 Jerusalem Post
July 3
HEADLINE: 3 Skeletons In Lebanon May Be From 1982 War
BYLINE: MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
The IDF said it was investigating reports that a farmer in south Lebanon had
found the skeletal remains of the three missing IDF soldiers-Zachary Baumel,
Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman-from the Sultan Yakoub battle in Lebanon 21
years ago. IDF officials said they had been aware of the report for some
time and were looking into the matter.
Citing a report on the Nur radio station affiliated with the Hizbullah,
Channel One claimed a farmer carrying out agricultural work on a site near
the village Hamra in the Bekaa Valley found the bodies. The report said that
DNA tests may be carried out on the bodies in the coming days. Daniel
Grisaro, spokesman for the International Coalition for Missing Soldiers,
told The Jerusalem Post that a month ago he received information that the
fate of the three MIA's from Sultan Yakoub was about to be resolved.
Grisaro said he believed that the constant US pressure on the Syrians and
demands by Condoleezza Rice to reveal information about the missing
soldiers, as well as the law passed in the US Congress demanding that the
Syrian government reveal the whereabouts of the soldiers, may have borne
fruit. "Three weeks ago we received information that three IDF soldiers were
transferred from Damascus to Lebanon," said Grisaro, adding "it was not
clear whether the soldiers were dead or alive."
Grisaro said Zachary's father Yona Baumel immediately contacted the Mossad
and the Prime Minister's Office after returning from Washington regarding
the new details and requested to meet with them. "The Prime Minister refused
to meet with Baumel, and when US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited
Israel two weeks ago the information was passed on to him," he said.
While the recent reports cannot be confirmed, Grisaro said he hoped that
finally the saga and suffering of the three families may at long last come
to an end. "We demand that the government of Israel and Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, who, when he was Defense Minister in 1982 and Minister of
Infrastructure in 1996 promised the families that once he was elected as
Prime Minister he would act to secure the soldiers' return, act
immediately," he said. Grisaro added that the coalition would insist that
any DNA tests be conducted at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv
by local officials and that if the bodies prove to be those of the soldiers
and the Syrians and Lebanese insist on striking a deal with Israel for their
return, the Coalition will insist that all the MIA's be returned to Israel.
In October 2000, three IDF soldiers-Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar
Sweid-were abducted by the Hizbullah on Mt.Dov. Hizbullah also claimed to
have abducted Israeli businessman Col.(Res.) Elhanan Tannenbaum the same
month. Other missing Israelis in Lebanon are Air Force navigator Ron Arad
and Guy Hever. Their fate remains unknown.