Israel has refused to make a deal with a terrorist organization in Lebanon for the return of the body of an Israeli soldier missing in action in Lebanon since 1982. Israel has also made it clear that it holds Syria responsible for the fate of all Israeli soldiers missing since a battle at Sultan Ya’akub four years ago.
Maj. Gen. Matan Vilnai, head of the Israel Defense Force manpower division, said in an interview, “We see the Syrians as responsible for everything that happened in the region of Sultan Ya’akub. The combat there was with the Syrian army, the area is an area under Syrian control and has been under Syrian control since the war. The terrorist organizations in that region are all organizations which owe their existence to the Syrians, ” Vilnai said.
He disclosed that the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group headed by Naif Hawatmeh, offered to return the body of a missing Israeli soldier, Samir Assad, in exchange for 50 terrorists imprisoned in Israel. The offer was turned down, Vilnai said, “because the day it is clear to the terrorists that they can get back live terrorists even in exchange for our bodies, they won’t have any interest in holding our soldiers alive.”
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