Israeli army says body of soldier missing for 43 years found in ‘heart of Syria’

The Israeli army said Sunday it had repatriated the body of a soldier missing for more than four decades, after locating the remains in the “heart of Syria” during a special operation with the Mossad intelligence agency.

Tzvika Feldman was one of three Israeli soldiers who went missing during the 1982 battle of Sultan Yacoub against Syrian forces in eastern Lebanon.

One of the soldiers was returned to Israel six years ago, and with Feldman now brought home, Israeli leaders said efforts would continue to recover the third.

“In a special operation led by the IDF (military) and Mossad, the body of Sgt. First Class Tzvika Feldman was found in the heart of Syria and brought back to Israel,” the army said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the efforts to locate Feldman’s remains, noting that the search for him and his comrades -- Zachariah Baumel and Yehuda Katz -- had been ongoing for decades.

“Approximately six years ago, we returned for a Jewish burial, Sgt. First Class Zechariah Baumel; today we have returned Tzvika, of blessed memory,” Netanyahu’s statement said, adding that the prime minister had personally notified Feldman’s parents.

“We will not cease our efforts to return Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz, who is also an MIA from the same battle.”

The army said that Feldman’s remains had been identified by the Genomic Identification Center for Fallen Soldiers of the Military Rabbinate but gave little detail on how his body was located deep inside Syria.

No one left behind

“The return of Sgt. Feldman was made possible through a complex and covert operation, enabled by precise intelligence and the use of operational capabilities that demonstrated ingenuity and courage,” the statement said.

“This concludes an extensive intelligence and operational effort that spanned more than four decades, involving close cooperation between the POW/MIA Coordinators in the Prime Minister’s Office, intelligence and operational units within the Mossad and IDF Intelligence Directorate, along with the Shin Bet and the IDF Human Resources Directorate,” the army said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said in a statement that returning Feldman’s remains should serve as “a powerful moral and national reminder to the prime minister and cabinet members -- a proper burial isn’t a privilege, but a fundamental duty the state owes to its citizens and soldiers.”

“In Israel, we leave no one behind. We cannot allow ourselves as a society to accept a reality where families wait more than 40 years to be reunited with their loved ones,” the forum said, urging to bring home all the remaining hostages being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Some 58 hostages remain held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Hamas also holds the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 war.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said efforts would continue until “all of its (Israel’s) sons and daughters are brought home.”

“The return of all the missing and captured, both the living and the fallen, is not only a deep commitment -- it is also our moral and national duty,” the minister said in a statement.