Bodies mistakenly thought to have been IDF soldiers flown to Israel last year

TV report reveals new details of Israeli-Russian operation that eventually led to last week’s repatriation of Zachary Baumel’s remains

Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman (center) in September, 2019 with flag-draped coffins that forensic tests subsequently showed were not missing IDF soldiers. (Channel 12, screenshot)
Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman (center) in September, 2019 with flag-draped coffins that forensic tests subsequently showed were not missing IDF soldiers. (Channel 12, screenshot)

The secret Israeli-Russian efforts to locate the long-lost remains of three IDF soldiers who went missing in Lebanon initially resulted in the wrong bodies being brought to Israel in 2018, Channel 12 news reported Saturday night.

Details of the complex operation to locate and repatriate the soldiers’ remains exposed some of the reasons behind multiple visits over the past year to Russia by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman.

The saga began when IDF intelligence gave Liberman information in October 2017 on the possible location in Syria of the bodies of three IDF soldiers missing and presumed killed in a tank battle near the village of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, the report said.

Liberman passed the information to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, Moscow approved the cooperation, and the Russian army in Syria joined the efforts to locate the soldiers.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and members of his staff meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on April 26, 2017. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

Over the past two years both Liberman and Netanyahu met with Russian leaders on various occasions for talks that officially focused on the civil war in Syria and Iranian military moves hostile to Israel.

No public mention was made after any of the meetings of the efforts to locate the three soldiers — Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman — who were among the 21 Israeli soldiers killed in the tank battle 37 years ago.

In May 2018 there were indications of progress and, based on the intelligence, four sets of remains suspected of being Israeli were exhumed from a cemetery in Syria, the report said. Liberman flew to Moscow and following an appeal from Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly gave his personal approval for the remains to be transferred by the Russians from Syria to Israel.

Liberman was filmed on his return to Israel with IDF officers in front of four flag-draped coffins carrying the remains. However, forensic tests showed that none of the four bodies were the missing soldiers. The footage shown Saturday night by Channel 12 was apparently censored at the time.

The Russians continued the search on the ground, but those efforts were delayed after Syria mistakenly shot down a Russian spy plane during an Israeli attack in northern Syria last September, sparking a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Jerusalem.

The cooperation finally paid off when Russia recently located Baumel’s remains along with some of his personal effects. Baumel was buried in Israel last week in a military funeral with eulogies given on national television by Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.

The remains of Katz and Feldman are presumed to be in the same cemetery where Baumel’s body was found, but officials involved in the operation fear that the media coverage surrounding the return of Baumel’s body could sabotage efforts to return his two comrades.

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