Israel returns body of army soldier killed in Lebanon in 1982

By Zein Khalil and Betul Yilmaz

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL (AA) – Israel said Sunday that it had retrieved the body of a former Israeli soldier killed in southern Lebanon in 1982.

“In a special Mossad and IDF (army) operation, we have returned home the body of Sgt. First Class Tzvi Feldman, who fell in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in June 1982 during the First Lebanon War,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Feldman went missing in 1982 during the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon.

Sultan Yacoub, a southern Lebanese village near the Syrian border, witnessed clashes between Israeli and Syrian forces on June 11, 1982.

At least 20 Israeli soldiers were killed, and six others went missing in the fighting.

In 2019, Israel recovered the bodies of two other missing soldiers, Yehuda Katz and Zachary Baumel.