Ron Arad

Hizbullah report says Ron Arad apparently dead

Prime minister, heads of intelligence services receive over weekend document summarizing Lebanese group's efforts to obtain information on missing Israeli navigator. Intelligence chiefs to discuss report Sunday, present their conclusions to government

Roni Sofer |Published: 07.12.08 , 19:40

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received over the weekend a report prepared by Hizbullah on the fate of missing Israel Defense Forces navigator Ron Arad, as part of the prisoner swap deal securing the return of kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

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."

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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.

The heads of Israel's intelligence services – the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the IDF's Intelligence Branch – and other intelligence officials will meet Sunday in order to discuss the details revealed in the new document.

The intelligence organizations' chiefs received the report over the weekend, and are expected to present their conclusions to the government in the coming days.

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.