Israel recovers soldier's remains 43 years after Lebanon battle
In a joint statement, the Israeli army and Mossad revealed the body belongs to the Staff Sergeant Tzvika Feldman, without disclosing the timing or exact location of the operation.
Feldman was one of three soldiers missing since the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, where Israeli forces clashed with Syrian troops during Israel's large-scale invasion that reached Beirut and parts of central and eastern Lebanon.
The announcement came amid heightened Israeli activity in the Golan Heights. Following the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by opposition factions on December 8, Israeli forces advanced into the buffer zone monitored by the United Nations under the 1973 disengagement agreement. Israel captured part of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981—a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States.
Additionally, the Israeli army continues to search for the remains of other missing soldiers, including airman Ron Arad, captured in Lebanon in 1986, and Guy Hever, who disappeared in the Golan in 1997.
Israel previously recovered the remains of another soldier from the same battle, Battalion Commander Zachary Baumel, in 2019. The fate of the third missing soldier, Yehuda Katz, remains unknown.
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