Israel has said it is almost certain that the three Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbollah are dead.
The head of the Israeli Army's Personnel Directorate, Major General Gil Regev, told reporters at a press conference Monday evening that military intelligence estimated there was a "high probability" that the three Israeli soldiers seized by Hizbollah were no longer alive.
Regev was quoted by Haaretz newspaper as saying that this assumption was based on "a new and reliable information,” obtained by military intelligence.
Omar Suwad, Benny Avraham, and Adi Avitan were taken prisoner by the Lebanese resistance group on October 7 last year in the occupied Shabaa Farms near the northern border with Lebanon.
Regev also said that military intelligence thought that the three were either killed during the initial Hizbollah attack or immediately afterward.
"We knew that the soldiers incurred mortal injuries during the abduction - from the initial attack that they sustained or shortly thereafter," Regev said, cited by the Tel Aviv-based paper.
However, the officer kept alive some hope, saying that "efforts to obtain information on their condition will continue."
He added that the military was waiting for the Israeli army's chief rabbi to issue a religious ruling with regard to the status of the soldiers.
The announcement came after military officials met with the families of the three soldiers.
Prior to the announcement, Haim Avraham, father of Benny, told Channel One news that Major General Regev told him that the chances were slim that the three soldiers were still alive, but that this was not absolutely certain, the report added.
For its part, Hizbollah refused to comment on the Israeli statements, saying it “will [circulate] an official statement in the coming hours regarding this issue.”
Israeli media sources predicted Hizbollah’s reaction, saying that the militia would claim that the Israel was trying to manipulate the situation to their detriment.
The three captured soldier were likely gravely injured in their capture and could have succumbed to their injuries, the UN had said in an earlier report.
Traces of blood were found in two all-terrain vehicles allegedly used by the Islamist militants to seize the soldiers.
The revelation appeared in a report generated at the request of Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate possible mistakes made by the United Nations mission in southern Lebanon after the kidnapping – Albawaba.com
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