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One of two pictures received
Photo courtesy of Channel 1

Family receives new pictures of Ron Arad

Twenty-two years after IDF navigator was captured, and several days before implementation of prisoner exchange with Hizbullah, Arad family gets two photos not seen before, personal diary addressed to his wife, daughter

The family of IDF navigator Ron Arad has received two pictures of the missing airman which were not seen in Israel in the past and were never published before, as well as a personal diary. 

 

The photos show Arad after he was captured by the Amal organization in Lebanon. In one of them he is seen with his hand hidden, indicating that he suffered an injury while in captivity.

 

The pictures were handed over to the family on Saturday evening along with a personal diary written by Arad while he was held by Amal after being captured on October 16, 1986. the diary contains notes addressed to his wife Tami and daughter Yuval.

 

The material was received in Israel as part of a report prepared by Hizbullah on Arad's fate. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received the report over the weekend, as part of the prisoner swap deal securing the return of kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.


Ron Arad in captivity (photo courtesy of Channel 10)

 

The report claims that Hizbullah has no accurate information on Arad's whereabouts, but that the Lebanese organization believes he is no longer alive. According to the detailed report delivered to Olmert, it appears that "there are no scientific and unequivocal conclusions as to the fate of Ron Arad."

 

State officials told Ynet that they believe the document would not suffice Israel's demands. They said the Israeli government would have to decide whether to continue with the prisoner exchange, despite the fact that the evidence Hizbullah was asked to deliver was not included in the report.

 

List of prisoners to be freed published

Israeli mediator Ofer Dekel delivered the report to Israel over the weekend as part of the swap deal. He received the report after German medicator Gerhard Konrad completed a round of questions Israel demanded from Hizbullah.

  

The report is expected to be discussed during the government meeting which will likely be convened upon the prime minister's return from Paris on Tuesday.

 

Ron Arad's daughter, Yuval, has said she was deeply hurt by the intention to call off the search for her father and declare him dead. "You cannot declare that a person is dead just because you don't know his fate," Yuval Arad said in a monologue aired Friday evening by Channel 10 News.

 

For the first time, Arad spoke about the Hizbullah report regarding her father's fate. "I was told that we're still looking for him," she said.

 

Meanwhile Sunday, the Israel Prison Service published a list containing the names of the Lebanese prisoners currently behind bars in Israel, who are to be released over the next few days as part of the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah. The list appears on the service's website.

 

One of the prisoners on the list is Samir Kuntar, who was sentenced to life plus 40 years in prison for murdering three family members and a police officer in Nahariya in 1979.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.13.08, 17:31
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