Israeli commandos carried out a rare overnight raid deep inside eastern Lebanon in an effort to locate the remains of missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, the military said, while accompanying Israeli airstrikes in the area reportedly killed dozens of people, according to Lebanese officials.
Helicopter-borne Israeli forces landed in the town of Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley during the operation. Israeli warplanes simultaneously conducted heavy strikes in the area. Local authorities in Lebanon said the bombardment resulted in at least 41 deaths. The Israeli military said none of its troops were harmed.
The Israel Defense Forces later stated that the operation did not uncover evidence connected to Arad’s remains. However, the military said the mission allowed it to eliminate one of the potential scenarios regarding where the navigator’s body might be located. Arad’s aircraft was shot down over Lebanon four decades ago.
According to the military, Arad’s relatives were informed about the developments following the raid. His widow later released a statement stressing that the family does not want Israeli soldiers placed in danger in efforts to retrieve his remains.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue tonight, reiterating that Israel remains committed to locating Arad and other missing Israelis.
“The operation carried out last night did not produce what we were looking for,” he says in a statement, “but the commitment of Israel, and my personal commitment, to completing all missions concerning our prisoners and missing persons is absolute.”
Reports about the raid first emerged overnight through Lebanese state media and Hezbollah outlets, which said Israeli troops attempted to land by helicopter in Nabi Chit, an area regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold near the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Baalbek district.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, citing the country’s health ministry, initially reported that Israeli strikes in Nabi Chit left at least 16 people dead and 35 injured. Later updates from the ministry raised the toll to 41 killed and 40 wounded.
Hezbollah claimed that its fighters had spotted Israeli aircraft entering the area. In a statement, the organization said its operatives had “observed the infiltration of four Israeli enemy army helicopters from the Syrian direction.”
According to Hezbollah’s account, once Israeli forces landed, troops moving toward the Nabi Chit cemetery were confronted by Hezbollah fighters. The group said its members used light and medium weapons during the encounter.
Hezbollah also alleged that Israeli forces responded with intense airstrikes before extracting the troops and later claimed its fighters fired rockets during the Israeli withdrawal.
Video circulated on social media showed what appeared to be heavy gunfire in the area.
Additional footage published by Lebanese media purportedly showed Israeli helicopters and soldiers operating near the town. Later images and videos appeared to show a large hole dug near the edge of a cemetery, believed to have been excavated by Israeli troops during the operation.
Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath first reported, without citing sources, that the raid may have been aimed at recovering the remains of Arad.
The IDF later confirmed the operation on this afternoon but rejected Hezbollah’s claims of direct combat. The military said there had been no clashes with Hezbollah fighters and that Israeli forces had not come under fire.
According to the IDF, troops carried out their activity in Nabi Chit while heavy airstrikes were launched to seal off the area. The military said anyone approaching the forces during the operation was targeted.
The IDF said the raid followed an “operational opportunity” created after evacuation orders were issued in Nabi Chit the previous day, along with additional intelligence gathered during the ongoing fighting with Hezbollah.
Arad disappeared in October 1986 after his aircraft was shot down over southern Lebanon during the country’s civil war. At the time, it was believed that he had been captured by the Shiite Amal movement.
Over the years, Arad has widely been presumed dead, though his remains have never been recovered.
In remarks issued after the raid, Arad’s widow, Tami, reiterated the family’s long-standing position that Israeli soldiers should not be endangered in attempts to retrieve his remains.
“We understand that our words until now have not been understood by the decision-makers and therefore it’s important for us to clarify: Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops as soon as there is risk to IDF soldiers,” she wrote on Facebook.
“In our eyes, the sanctity of life comes before the commitment to return the remains of a fighter for burial. This is our worldview also regarding our loved one who disappeared some 40 years ago,” she wrote.
“We have stated as a family on more than one occasion that we oppose actions that would endanger soldiers. That’s why we say to the prime minister of Israel: We thank everyone involved in the intelligence activity concerning Ron. We value the commitment of the State of Israel, yet we request in every way possible, do not carry out operations that have even minimal risk to the troops,” Arad wrote.
“For 40 years we have lived with the fact that Ron is missing, we want to know what happened to Ron, but not at any cost. The sanctity of life comes above the closing of a circle of certainty for us. We prefer to live with the painful possibility that Ron’s bones are in Lebanon rather than wake up in the morning to the news that an IDF soldier was injured, or God forbid, killed, in an operation to bring back his remains, if indeed they are his,” she wrote.
“We thank the IDF soldiers and security forces and appreciate those who worked for Ron, and we ask that our request to sanctify life be honored,” she said.
Israeli intelligence assessments have long suggested that after being held by Amal, Arad may have been transferred to Iranian custody. According to Israeli beliefs, he may have been moved from Lebanon to Iran and later returned.
During the first two years after his capture, Israel received several indications that he was alive, including photographs and letters. The last such communication arrived on May 5, 1988.
Since the mid-1990s, Arad has generally been presumed dead, although intelligence reports have differed regarding when, where, and how he may have died.
Israeli officials believe Arad may have been held in the Nabi Chit region following his capture, and the area has been searched in the past as part of efforts to locate his remains.
Lebanese reports also noted that in December, a retired Lebanese security official from Nabi Chit who had been linked to Arad’s capture disappeared.
The Israeli military said today that it would “continue to operate tirelessly, day and night, out of a deep commitment to bringing all our sons, the fallen and the missing, back home to Israel.” Three soldiers are still classified by the IDF as missing: Maj. Arad, Staff Sgt. Guy Hever, and Sgt. First Class Yehuda Katz.
The overnight raid represented the deepest Israeli incursion into Lebanon in recent years, following a 2024 operation in which Israeli special forces captured Hezbollah operative Imad Amhaz in the northern Lebanese city of Batroun.
{Matzav.com}
