Anat Cohen, the sister of Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, welcomes the return of his body from Syria, nearly 43 years after the IDF soldier went missing during the First Lebanon War.
“We always believed that Zvika would return, and indeed Zvika did,” she says, according to the Ynet news site.
“This is a happy day for us and for the entire people of Israel. The unbelievable has happened,” Cohen says. “My heart is bursting with excitement and we are trying to digest it. I am extremely excited.”
Earlier today, the IDF and Mossad announced that Feldman’s body had been recovered from “the heart of Syria” in a special operation.
Feldman went missing in the battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982.
The battle was a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen, and injured more than 30.
Feldman, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle along with Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz and Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel. Baumel’s remains were recovered and returned to Israel in 2019.
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