Disappearance of Ron Arad

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Ron Arad
Lieutenant Colonel
Captain at the time of his capture
Spouse(s)Tami Arad
Children1
Disappeared16 October 1986 (aged 28)
Sidon
StatusMissing for 37 years, 6 months and 13 days

Ron Arad (Hebrew: רוֹן אָרָד; born 5 May 1958), was an Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who has officially been classified as missing in action since October 1986. Arad was lost on a mission over Lebanon and is believed to have been captured by the militant group Amal and later handed over to Hezbollah.

Personal life

Arad was born on 5 May 1958 in

IAF flight course
in 1979 as a combat navigator.

In October 1985, Arad began studying

Technion in Haifa
. Arad was married to Tami and is father to a daughter, Yuval.

Capture

On 16 October 1986, Arad and pilot Yishai Aviram were on a mission to attack

Amal
.

Arad was taken to Beirut where he was held by then-head of security of Amal, Mustafa Dirani. Amal head Nabih Berri announced that he was holding Arad, and proposed an exchange for Shiite and Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.

In 1987, three letters in Arad's handwriting and two photos of a bearded Arad were received, proving Arad was alive. The Israeli government negotiated for his release, but talks failed in 1988. After this time, credible information about Arad has been hard to obtain, though unsubstantiated claims of new information are made regularly.

To gain further insight on his whereabouts, Israeli commandos captured

Iranian Revolutionary Guards
who were in Lebanon at the time aiding Hezbollah guerrillas, after which he may have been taken to Iran. But neither Iran nor any guerrilla group ever offered any useful information about Arad's fate. Karim-Obeid and Dirani were released in 2004 as part of a prisoner swap. No information on Arad's fate was released after the swap.

Efforts to determine his fate

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon revealed that an intelligence agent had been killed during efforts to rescue Arad. In December 2003, an organization seeking information about Arad issued a reward of $10 million to anyone coming forward with such information.

In 2004,

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Both Dirani and Hezbollah later suspected that Arad had been picked up by Revolutionary Guard personnel and taken to Iran. The commission claimed that he was taken to Tehran
in 1990, where he was held in strict secrecy and in complete isolation. Arad was transferred back to Lebanon following the capture of Mustafa Dirani in a 1994 Israeli commando raid, after the Iranians feared that Dirani would implicate them. Arad was held at a Revolutionary Guard facility in Lebanon. The report stated that Arad died after he became gravely ill and was refused medical treatment, and that he was buried by militiamen in the Beqaa Valley. Furthermore, both Iran and Hezbollah did not know the precise location where he was buried, and were unable to locate his gravesite. While the majority of the committee members concluded that Arad had died in early 1995, others said that he probably died in late 1996 or early 1997. The report's analysis also revealed that Hezbollah assumed that Arad had died around 1995.

Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu refused to publish the results, and military censors only released the findings after Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman threatened to file a complaint with the Supreme Court. After the report became public, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Israel would continue to work under the assumption that Arad was alive, unless there was "conclusive evidence" that he was dead.[5][6][7]

In the early 1990s, Israel offered Iran a $10 billion aid package and to help Iran negotiate a compromise with the

Yediot Ahronot.[8]

In 1998 Ahmad Rezaee, the son of the former Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaee who had defected to the United States, claimed to have some information on the location of Arad and was willing to use his contacts in Iranian intelligence to find out his specific fate. However, his monetary demands were considered excessive and Israel rejected his offer.[9]

In 2006, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah publicly stated that Hezbollah believed Arad to be dead and his remains lost. This marked the first time they publicly acknowledged their lack of knowledge about Arad's whereabouts.

On 28 August 2006, the

Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation broadcast new footage of Arad. It is unknown when the footage was recorded.[10]
In October 2007, Israel received a two-decade old letter written by Arad to his family.

On 29 June 2008, United Nations negotiator Gerhard Konrad informed the Israeli government that according to Hezbollah, Arad had been killed during an escape attempt in 1988.[11]

In a news conference on 2 July 2008, held by Hassan Nasrallah, he stated that his group conducted a detailed investigation into the fate of the missing Israeli navigator. The investigation spanned three years, and included in-depth interviews with prominent figures in Lebanon. Nasrallah declined to indicate the findings of the investigation, but stated that a written report was handed to the United Nations representative mediating between the Lebanese group and the Israelis.

During the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011, the son of Arad's pilot, Yishai Aviram, was the helicopter pilot who flew Gilad Shalit home after he personally appealed to Air Force commander Ido Nehoshtan.[12]

In February 2016, a Lebanese man, Moufid Kuntar, claimed in court that Arad had been tortured to death while being interrogated in 1988 and was buried in a forest near Mount Lebanon. Kuntar was a commander of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and claimed that the group captured Arad after he ejected. Kuntar was charged with spying for Israel's intelligence services, but claimed that he provided Israel with false information of Arad's fate until his court appearance.[13]

In October 2016, news reports revealed that a joint investigation carried out by Mossad and IDF Military Intelligence, based on new information received over the previous two years, concluded that Arad had died in 1988.[14]

In October 2021, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed that Mossad kidnapped an Iranian general in Syria to uncover information on the whereabouts of Ron Arad.[15]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-9963-715-03-9
    p.170
  2. UN Security Council (31 July 1989). "26. The Question of Hostage-Taking and Abduction"
    (PDF). United Nations. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  3. ^ UN Resolution 638, reprinted by Jewish Virtual Library
  4. ^ "Facility 1391: Israel's Secret Prison". theguardian.com. 14 November 2003. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  5. ^ Katz, Yaakov (13 July 2008). "Airman Ron Arad's family given new photos". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  6. ^ "Missing for 23 Years: Secret Israeli Report Reveals Truth about Ron Arad's Fate". Der Spiegel. 7 September 2009. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  7. ^ "MI report says Ron Arad died in '95". Ynetnews. YnetNews.com. October 16, 1986. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  8. ^ Bergman, Ronen (June 20, 1995). "Israel offered Iran billions for Arad". Ynetnews. YnetNews.com. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  9. ^ Carmon, Haggai (18 November 2011). "The Mysterious Death of Ahmad Rezaee: Whodunit?". huffingtonpost.com.
  10. ^ "Israeli who aided Lebanese TV: Ron Arad film sheds no new light". Haaretz.
  11. ^ "German negotiator informs Israel missing aviator is dead (Roundup)". Monsters and Critics. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  12. ^ Zitun, Yoav (October 23, 2011). "Father flew with Ron Arad, Son brought Gilad Shalit home". Ynetnews. YnetNews.com. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  13. ^ Roi Kais (20 February 2016). "Israeli captive Ron Arad died in 1988 after torture". Ynetnews.
  14. ^ "Israel believes missing airman Ron Arad died in 1988 — report". Times of Israel. 10 October 2016.
  15. ^ "Mossad kidnapped an Iranian general to obtain info on Ron Arad – report". Times of Israel. 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-10-07.

External links

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