Israeli and Lebanese talks expected to resume today will reportedly include discussion of returning the remains of missing navigator Ron Arad in exchange for Lebanese prisoners, according to a Tuesday report by an Al-Jadeed correspondent in Washington. Arad has been missing for more than 40 years.
The report comes after a covert operation about three months ago in a cemetery area near Nabi Sheet in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border, where Israel’s Shaldag special forces searched for material linked to Arad. According to reports, Hezbollah gunmen opened fire after the Israeli force landed, and the area saw an exchange of fire. Some reports said the troops operated only briefly before pulling out.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time, “Our heroic fighters went out last night on a special operation to locate and bring back navigator Ron Arad, who fell captive in Lebanon about 40 years ago. For many years we have been working on this mission without pause. The operation carried out last night did not yield the findings we sought, but the State of Israel’s commitment, and my commitment, to completing every mission regarding our captives and missing is absolute and permanent. So it was, and so it will be.”
Tami Arad, Ron Arad’s wife, responded on social media that the family has always opposed operations that endanger soldiers. She said, “the desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it entails risk to IDF soldiers,” adding, “sanctity of life comes before the obligation to return a fighter’s bones for burial.” She urged Netanyahu not to order missions that carry even a minimal risk to troops.
Ron Arad was captured on October 16, 1986, after ejecting from his aircraft during an operational mission in southern Lebanon. The article also notes earlier claims that the Mossad abducted retired security official Ahmed Shokor to obtain information about Arad. A Lebanese legal source told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Shokor’s disappearance suggests he was “kidnapped by Israel in an intelligence operation,” while Saudi Al-Hadath reported suspicion that a group entered Beirut airport two days before the abduction and left afterward.
