The parents of missing Israeli servicemen have urged a visiting Red Cross official to continue efforts to uncover the fate of their sons.
The request came when the president of the International Red Cross, Cornelio Somorouga, met Monday in Tel Aviv with the families of Israeli servicemen missing from the war in Lebanon, which began in 1982.
Yona Baumel, the father of Israeli MIA Zacharia Baumel, said after the meeting that he told Somoruga that he had gotten information confirming that his son is alive. Yona Baumel added that he asked the visiting official to concentrate his efforts on the new information.
Somoruga said the meeting with the parents of Israeli MIAs was useful.
“We were able to make small progress with some information we got, particularly from the parents,” he said.
Somoruga also met with the family of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down in 1986 over Lebanon and who was believed to have subsequently been held in captivity in Iran.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who was visited the Middle East this week, said Germany had no new information on the fate of Arad.
He said that at Israel’s request, Germany had attempted to obtain information about arad from Iran, but that no new leads were obtained.
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