The three Israeli soldiers ambushed and taken captive by Hizbollah on the Lebanese border last month died in captivity, the Paris-based weekly Al-Watan al-Arabi reported Thursday, quoted by The Jerusalem Post.
The Arabic-language paper said that St.-Sgt. Omar Sawayid, St.-Sgt. Avraham Binyamin, and Sgt. Adi Avitan "died of complications which developed after the kidnapping."
The Israeli Army would not comment, said the Post, adding that the army's Northern Command is looking into foreign reports that the three likely died from lack of immediate medical treatment, since they suffered severe wounds during the ambush.
The army also refused to disclose its opinion of their condition and has consistently stuck to the standard line that the abducted men are presumed alive unless proven otherwise, said the daily.
Al-Watan said that the bodies were being kept in different parts of Lebanon, in locations unknown to the Lebanese government
The army initially said that the soldiers did not appear to have been hurt in the kidnapping. But it later said that DNA testing of the blood at the scene revealed that all were injured, apparently by two rockets fired at the command car they had driven to the disputed border area near the Shabaa farms, which Lebanon demand as part of its occupied lands.
For Hizbollah, their resistance is legitimate as long as Shabaa is under the Israeli control.
"It is clear that there is room for concern just from the fact Hizbollah stubbornly refuses to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to see the kidnapped soldiers," an army source told The Jerusalem Post.
The soldiers' families have been meeting with high-ranking officials in the United States this week, in an effort to increase efforts to locate their loved ones, added the paper.
Hizbollah also captured an Israeli reservists holding the rank of colonel, who the party said was a Mossad agent working against the Islamist group which spearheads resistance against Israel – (Albawaba.com)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
