Israeli special forces operated in deep Lebanese territory overnight Friday in an attempt to locate findings related to Lt. Col. Ron Arad, an Israeli Air Force navigator who has been missing in action since 1986, the Israel Defense Forces said.
No findings related to him were located at the search site, the army said, adding that the raid resulted in no injuries to the troops.
“The IDF will continue to operate relentlessly, day and night, out of a deep commitment to bringing all of Israel’s sons, the fallen and the missing, back home to the State of Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the incident, saying that his and the state’s commitment to bringing back all captives and those missing is “absolute and eternal. This is how it was and this is how it shall be.”
Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster reported that Israeli Air Force special forces members carried out the operation in the village of Nabi Chit, aka Al-Nabi Shayth, situated in Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, where Arad was hidden in early 1988, guarded by the Shukur clan.
Following the reports, Tami Arad, the spouse of the navigator, called on the government on behalf of their family not to risk the lives of soldiers for the sake of their husband and father.
“Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it involves risking the lives of IDF soldiers. In our view, the sanctity of life comes before the obligation to return a soldier’s remains for burial. This has been our worldview as well regarding our loved one who disappeared about 40 years ago,” she wrote on Facebook.
“As a family, we have declared more than once that we oppose actions that would endanger soldiers. Therefore, we wish to address the prime minister of Israel and say: We thank everyone involved in the intelligence efforts concerning Ron. We appreciate the commitment of the State of Israel, and at the same time we ask, in the strongest possible terms: Do not authorize operations that involve even the slightest risk to soldiers,” Arad continued.
She went on to emphasize that the family wants to know what happened to Ron Arad, “but not at any price.”
Lt. Col. Arad has been classified as missing in action since October 1986, when his plane went down over Lebanon. He ejected from his F-4 Phantom II interceptor/fighter-bomber but was captured by the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group Amal.
His pilot, Yishai Aviram, was located by an Israeli Bell AH-1 Cobra and escaped by clinging to one of its landing skids as it flew away under heavy enemy fire.
The captured navigator was later handed over to Hezbollah, and later, perhaps to Iran.
