The massive search for Sgt. Avi Sasportas continued Sunday with no evidence of the Israel Defense Force paratrooper’s fate, save for footprints suggesting he was kidnapped.
The police are reported to be relying on intelligence sources in Arab towns and villages for clues to the whereabouts of the paratrooper, missing for 10 days.
The search, which has employed thousands of soldiers, border police and civilian volunteers for more than a week, was narrowed down to the Lachish region over the weekend.
The ground is being scoured yard by yard. Some areas have been gone over four or five times.
Bedouin trackers reported traces of footprints of a man in stockinged feet and two men in boots. This fits the kidnap theory, especially since Sasportas’ boots were found early in the search.
Police said his abductors probably made him remove them so it would be difficult for him to escape.
Sasportas, who comes from Ashdon, was last seen on Feb. 16 at a road junction outside his military base near Gaza, waiting for a lift home.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
