In Covert Syria Mission, Mossad Recovers Remains Of Soldier From 1982 Sultan Yakoub Battle

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that the body of missing IDF soldier Staff-Sergeant Tzvi Feldman, who fell in the Battle of Sultan Yaqoub during the First Lebanon War in June 1982, was returned to Israel in a special operation by the Mossad and the IDF in Syria.

Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived at the Feldman family home in Tel Aviv along with his military secretary in order to personally inform the family of his return to Israel after 43 years.

Feldman was killed in the Battle of Sultan Yaqoub in the First Lebanon War in 1982, and was considered missing for about 43 years. 20 IDF soldiers were killed in the battle, and about 30 more were wounded. Three soldiers went missing after the battle, and the remains of two of them have been recovered- Zachary Baumel and Tzvi Feldman. The whereabouts of the remaining soldier, Yehuda Katz, remain unknown.

In a special operation led by the IDF and the Mossad, Feldman’s body was located deep in Syria and brought back to Israel. After its return, it was identified by the IDF’s Genetic Identification Center under the Military Rabbinate, and the family was notified by the IDF in the presence of the Prime Minister.

The return of Feldman was achieved in a complex and covert mission, made possible thanks to precise intelligence and operational capabilities that demonstrated ingenuity and courage.

This marks the completion of an extensive intelligence and operational effort spanning more than four decades, through joint collaboration between the Prime Minister’s Office’s Prisoners and Missing Persons unit, intelligence services, and operational units in the Mossad and Military Intelligence , along with the Shin Bet and the IDF’s Human Resources Directorate.

This operation represents the closure of a long period of uncertainty, following a similar mission in 2019 that returned the remains of Staff Sergeant Zachary Baumel z”l, made possible by research, intelligence gathering, and operations deep within enemy territory.

In a statement, the prime minister’s office said that “The Israeli security establishment remains deeply committed to tirelessly pursuing the return of all our sons and daughters, day and night, until every one is brought home.”