Syrian insurgents excavated graves in a cemetery in a refugee camp near the capital of Damascus to search for the remains of three Israeli soldiers who have been missing since the 1982 Lebanon War, according to a Palestinian militant in Syria.
Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the bodies of the three soldiers had been transferred to Syria after the battle of Sultan Yacoub, a Lebanese village close to the Syrian border.
Five Israeli soldiers went missing on June 11, 1982, during the battle. Several years later, two of the missing soldiers were returned alive to Israel in prisoner exchanges with Syria and the PFLP-GC. The fate of the remaining three soldiers – Staff Sgt. Zachary Baumel, Staff Sgt. Yehuda Katz and Staff Sgt. Tzvi Feldman – remains unknown.
Last week, after a monthlong battle, Syrian troops regained control of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk from the Islamic State group. Before ISIS took the camp, several insurgent groups had a presence there, including al-Qaida-linked gunmen.
Raja said the insurgents' aim was to find the remains of the soldiers and transfer them to Israel. The refugee camp contains the old Martyrs' Cemetery, where Palestinian fighters and commanders are buried. He said all the tombs in the cemetery were excavated.
Raja also said that earlier this month, while examining the belongings of gunmen being transported to northern Syria, Syrian security forces arrested a woman and confiscated two bags of soil she was carrying that apparently came from the cemetery, and sent them to authorities for DNA analysis.
"This demonstrates that [the insurgents] are keen to determine whether the Israeli soldiers were buried in this cemetery," he said, denying reports that the bodies were ever buried there.
Officials from Eitan, the Israeli military's missing persons unit, refused to comment. The department in charge of Israelis missing in action in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office also refused to comment.
