Gur Orders Probe of Dead and Missing Israeli Soldiers in South Lebanon

Chief of Staff Gen. Mordechai Gur ordered an investigation in to the circumstances surrounding the ambush of six Israeli soldiers and one civilian who entered terrorist-held territory near Tyre in south Lebanon on an unauthorized sight-seeing trip Wednesday that ended in tragedy and severe embarrassment for the Israeli military.

All seven men were wounded in the encounter. One soldier and the civilian made it back to Israeli lines. Five soldiers were left in terrorist hands, three of them presumed dead. As a result an officer and two guards at the army’s advance road block opposite the Rashidiyeh refugee camp in the Tyre enclave have been arrested and the senior officer of the unit was suspended from duty pending the outcome of the probe.

The civilian, identified as Yehuda Galbi, a nature lover and director of a field school at Gesher A-Ziv, has been placed under house arrest for wearing a military uniform without permission. The surviving soldier, Yossi Weisel, of the regular army, was hospitalized for treatment of his wounds.

SOLDIERS IDENTIFIED

The five soldiers, dead or missing, were identified by an army spokesman today as Sgt. Maj.(Res.) David Dror, 2 9, of Nahariya; Pvt. Jacob Ben Uzi, 35, of Acre; Pvt. Nissim Zamir, 33, of Tel Aviv; Pvt. Amram Avraham, 28, of Hadera; and Pvt. Albert Ben Ezra, 32, of Kiryat Atta. Most of them were reservists. They were the objects of intensive searches by units of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) without success.

Last night, the terrorists claimed to have the bodies of four Israeli soldiers and one prisoner still alive. Israel, whose policy is to have no dealings whatsoever with the Palestine Liberation Organization, has asked the International Red Cross to intervene to recover the missing men or their remains. Similar requests have been made to the U.S. government and the Lebanese authorities in Beirut. The terrorists reportedly offered to exchange the Israelis for three PLO prisoners in Israeli jails.

FOCUS OF ARMY PROBE

The army investigation is expected to center on why the seven men, travelling in a civilian vehicle, were permitted to cross Israeli lines into territory bristling with terrorists. The men themselves were accused of gross negligence and irresponsibility and similar charges could be brought against the soldiers who failed to stop them.

It was revealed, meanwhile, that Wednesday’s incident was the third since Israel declared a ceasefire in south Lebanon that soldiers were trapped by terrorists beyond Israeli lines. In one incident, 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded on a rescue mission and killed 10 terrorists before they could extricate themselves.

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT PROVIDED

The only account of Wednesday’s events made public so far was that offered by Galbi who sustained only slight wounds. According to his story, he joined two reserve soldiers searching for a missing tractor inside Israeli lines early in the afternoon at Tebnin village. They were unable to find

Galbi said they were stopped at the advance checkpoint near Tyre but were allowed to pass into enemy territory after persuading the guards that they were only going a short distance. He said they found themselves lost among the densely cultivated groves in the region and stopped in an orchard to pick fruit. At that point they were surrounded by heavily armed terrorists, Galbi said.

He reported that the terrorists demanded the soldiers’ weapons whereupon they drove off at high speed but came under a hail of fire which disabled their vehicle. He said three soldiers were fatally wounded. The others, also wounded, left the vehicle but were surrounded and captured. Only he and Weisel managed to hide and later returned to Israeli lines.