The Syrian Government, reacting to Israeli complaints that returned prisoners had been subjected to inhuman treatment in Syrian prisons, said Syrians were still being held in Israeli prisons and receiving “the worst possible treatment and to retune,” it was reported here today from Damascus.
A Syrian Defense Ministry spokesman said that, despite the recent exchange, “many other Syrians remain in Israeli prisons.” He said the prisoners had been taken in the 1948 Israel-Arab war. He did not give any figures. The spokesman said the Syrian Government had repeatedly sought the intervention of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization to free the captives, but that Israel “would not even allow UN observers into Israeli prisons where the Syrians are being held.”
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