One of five Israel soldiers captured by Syrian troops last month committed suicide in prison, the United Nations truce organization in Palestine announced today on the basis of a message received by the UN chairman of the Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission from the Syrian authorities.
Immediately after the news of the reported suicide was released, Dr. Walter Eytan, director general of the Israel Foreign Ministry, invited United Nations truce supervisor Gen. E.L.M. Burns to meet with him. The subject of their discussion has not been disclosed.
The dead soldier was named as Uri Ilan. A UN observer was immediately dispatched to the prison where he had been held, and efforts are being made to arrange for the Israel delegate to the MAC and an Israel doctor to visit the prison, too, and learn the circumstances of the soldier’s death. The other four men held by Syria, identified today, are: Lt. Meir Moses, Sgt, Meir Yaakobi, Pvt. Yaacov Lind and Pvt. Gad ###astelanetz.Last night, the MAC condemned Israel, charging that the five-man patrol, of which the dead soldier was a member, had been sent into-Syrian-held territory in violation of the armistice agreement. At the same time, the MAC labelled them prisoners of war, asked they be given the treatment provided by the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war and, finally, that they be released.
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