Fire on northern border
Photo: AP
Two families from northern Israel went through long hours of nerve-racking uncertainty Wednesday, after they were both informed by an IDF representative that their son, who was on board one of the Hummers attacked by Hizbullah in the morning, had been either killed or kidnapped in the strike.
At about noon, when the army envoys arrived at the families' houses, they explained to the parents that owing to the fact one of the bodies uncovered at the scene of the attack sustained particularly serious injuries, the process of identifying it was still being carried out. Therefore, they informed the grief-stricken families, it was unclear whether their son was dead or held hostage by Hizbullah.
In the long hours that followed the notification, both families were faced with two different and unbearable possibilities: Their son was either killed in the attack or kidnapped into Lebanon.
Difficulties in identifying bodies
The process of identifying the dead soldier's body continued up until 10 p.m., when pathologists were eventually able to establish the soldier's identity and determine he was a career officer who served as a Hummer driver in the northern Division.
The other soldier, a reservist, has been kidnapped by Hizbullah and is apparently still alive.
Due to this difficult dilemma, the army refrained from publishing the killed soldiers' names and places of residence until the evening hours.
During the kidnapping of the two reserve soldiers, three other troops were killed. Owing to difficulties in the bodies' identification, only three names of soldiers killed in the strike have been released so far.
Ahiya Raved contributed to the report