The three Israeli soldiers snatched last month by the Lebanese militant movement Hizbollah were hurt, perhaps seriously, during their capture, the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star said Saturday.
Citing an unidentified source with the United Nations, the newspaper said the two vehicles used by Hizbollah and later found abandoned by UN peacekeepers both had bloodstains.
One of the vehicles, a Range Rover, "was heavily soaked with pools of congealing blood," the newspaper said.
"If it was all from one person, then he would almost certainly have been dead within half an hour unless he was treated immediately," The Daily Star quoted the UN source as saying.
The Israeli army has said the soldiers were hurt during the October 7 operation but has not given details on the extent of their injuries.
Hassan Seqlawi, press attaché for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), declined to confirm the newspaper report.
"It's possible that a UNIFIL officer gave such information to The Daily Star but we cannot officially take responsibility for (the comments) on our part," he said.
Hizbollah has not given details on the captives' state and has resisted requests by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to let observers visit them.
Hizbollah, a Shiite Muslim fundamentalist group supported by Iran and Syria, has said it wants to swap the three Israelis for Arabs detained by Israel -- BEIRUT (AFP)
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