Copyright 2003 Haaretz
October 9
HEADLINE: Army considers declaring three missing Sultan Yakub soldiers killed in action
BYLINE: Amos Harel and Roni Singer
The IDF is considering declaring the three soldiers
missing since the Sultan Yakub battle of 1982 in
Lebanon as killed in action.
Channel 1 reported last night
that a special report prepared
in the army did not find any
evidence to back up the
possibility that the three -
Zecharia Baumel, Zvi Feldman
and Yehuda Katz - are still
alive, and the existing
information strengthens
assessments the three are
dead.
The three soldiers were in a tank that took part
in the fierce Israeli-Syrian tank battle near
the Syrian border on June 12, 1982, during
Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Their tank was
later paraded through the streets of Damascus,
but no trace of the three soldiers was ever
found. Twenty soldiers were killed in the
battle, and two were taken prisoner by the
Syrians and later returned in a prisoner
exchange deal.
Katz was commander of one of the two tanks that
disappeared during the battle, while Feldman
and Baumel were crewmen on another tank.
Baumel held dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship and
ever since he disappeared, his parents have
dedicated their lives to finding him, following
up countless leads. Interviewed on Channel 1
last night, Zecharia's father Yona Baumel
indicated he did not know about the
determination that the three were dead. He said
he was pressing the military to make a
definitive verdict about the fate of the
soldiers.