The remains of the Israeli soldier Zachary Baumel were recently brought to Israel, some 37 years after he went missing during a major battle in Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces said on Wednesday.
Baumel's funeral will be held at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. local time.
Several Israeli soldiers went missing in Lebanon on June 11, 1982 during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub on the Syrian-Lebanon border, including Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
The battle took place during the first phase of Operation Peace for the Galilee.
The IDF said Baumel's remains were returned aboard an El Al flight through an anonymous third country intermediary in an operation undertaken by Israel's intelligence agencies.
Baumel, who immigrated to Israel with his parents from New York in 1970, was 21 when he fought in the operation, which often referred to as the First Lebanon War. The first phase of the operation saw major clashes between Israeli and Syrian troops in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a live address Wednesday during which he thanked Israel's intelligence community for their "tremendous efforts," declaring it a "moral duty" for his government and all Israelis to invest in the return of all Israeli soldiers who have gone missing in battle.
"From here in Jerusalem, we say may his memory be a blessing forever," the Israeli leader concluded.
Netanyahu later met with Shimon Baumel and Osnat Haberman, the brother and sister of Zachary Baumel, and their children.
"Usually for bereaved families life is divided into two: Before and after. For you life is divided into three: Before, during and now. We have made good on our promise," Netanyahu told the family members.
Osnat Haberman said she told her mother years ago that "it was not enough to want and to search. There needs to be someone with the winning card and now you have brought it."
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. General Aviv Kochavi acknowledged the "long-term effort by the intelligence community and the Missing Persons Branch" in order to locate soldiers who went missing in action.
In 2004, the IDF changed the status of troops who went missing during the Sultan Yaaqub battle from MIA to fallen soldiers.
It is believed that Russia was the third party involved in helping recover Baumel's remains.
The Russian Defense Ministry revealed last year it was searching specific areas in Syria for Israeli MIA at the request of Israel.
A senior member of the Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine told Lebanese media on Wednesday that the remains were found by armed factions in a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.
He claimed that the remains were transferred to Syria after the bloody 1982 battle.
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