Israel has refused to exchange convicted terrorists in return for an Egyptian consent to allow the continuation of the search for missing bodies in the Sinai front, the newspaper Maariv reported today. The paper quoted Prof. David Meisler, the father of a missing soldier, who said this was explained to him by the army officer in charge of the search activities.
Maariv added, however, that several dozen terrorists who did not actually participate in sabotage acts–but merely belonged to terrorist organizations–as well as an Egyptian intelligence officer, were handed over to the Egyptians in return for the continued search for bodies, in a secret deal with the Egyptians. Maariv quotes an official security source who confirmed that there was such a deal, but, the source was quoted as saying, there was no exchange of the prisoners who had actually participated in terror acts.
Even if Israel were to meet the Egyptian conditions, the paper said, the Egyptians are limiting the search area to places where there is no probability of finding missing bodies, and they refuse to allow searches in the areas where Israel believes there may be bodies.
SEE PHOTOS OF DEAD SONS
The paper also quoted members of three families who said they saw photos of their sons in propaganda leaflets the Egyptian army published. They said the photos showed clearly the bodies of their sons lying near their tank. However, the Egyptians refused to allow any search in the area where that tank was hit. They said they themselves would look for the bodies of the three, but then reported they found nothing.
The matter was brought up, according to Maariv, in a meeting between Israeli Brigadier Herzl Shafir and the Egyptian Brigadier Sharif. Shafir asked Sharif to hand him the negative of the film, so that the three can be clearly identified, but the Egyptian refused.
“The world should know,” the parents were quoted as saying this week, “in what an in humanitarian fashion the Egyptians behave. We know that the Egyptians only consent for the search of bodies in return for bribery. Now they are asking for the worst murderers. It is unlikely that the world’s public opinion would accept such anti-humanitarian acts, and we are going to express our protest throughout the world.”
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