An Israeli operation to search for clues about a navigator who went missing 40 years ago has left dozens dead, according to Lebanese authorities.
The Lebanese army and state media said that an Israeli commando force landed on the mountains along the border with Syria before heading to the eastern town of Nabi Chit, where they clashed with Hezbollah and local fighters.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 41 people were killed and 40 wounded.
Lebanese army commander General Rudolphe Haikal claimed that the Israeli force was dressed in Lebanese army uniforms, and used ambulances with signs of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization, during the operation.
A resident of Nabi Chit told The Associated Press that the Israeli force entered the town and dug up a grave in a cemetery before it left.
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Hezbollah said its members clashed with the Israeli force, and that Israel’s air force conducted around 40 airstrikes in the area in order for the unit on the ground to be able to withdraw.
The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on social media that the force did not find Arad’s remains.
Arad went missing after parachuting from a fighter jet that crashed in Lebanon in 1986. He had been involved in an operation against suspected Palestinian militants.
Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator missing since he parachuted out of a fighter jet over Lebanon in 1986. Undated handout pic: Reuters
A Shiite Muslim faction called the Believers’ Resistance captured Arad alive after he landed, and released some photos of him early on before all traces of him disappeared.
Arad was believed to have been held in Nabi Chit until 1988, after which he went missing following a fierce battle between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in the village of Meidoun, further south.
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Arad’s wife Tami, meanwhile, has urged Israel’s leaders not to endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers in their search for him.
“Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it endangers Israeli soldiers,” she wrote on Facebook.
“For 40 years, we have lived with the fact that Ron is missing, and we want to know what happened to Ron, but not at any price. The sanctity of life is above any closing of the circle of certainty for us.”
Adraee said the Israeli force did not suffer any casualties in the operation.
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