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An Israeli operation to search for clues about a navigator who disappeared 40 years ago has left dozens of people dead, according to Lebanese authorities.
The Lebanese army and state media said that Israel The commandos landed in the mountains along the border with Syria before heading to the eastern town of Nabi Chit, where they clashed with Hezbollah and local fighters.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 41 people were killed and 40 others were injured.
Lebanese army commander General Rudolphe Haikal claimed that Israeli troops wore Lebanese army uniforms, and used ambulances with Islamic Health Organization Hezbollah markings, during the operation.
A resident of Nabi Chit told the Associated Press that Israeli troops entered the town and dug graves in the cemetery before they left.
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Hezbollah said its members clashed with Israeli forces, and the Israeli air force carried out about 40 airstrikes in the area to allow units on the ground to withdraw.
Israel’s Arabic-speaking military spokesman, Avichay Adraee, posted on social media that his troops had not found Arad’s body.
Arad went missing after parachuting from a crashed fighter jet Lebanon in 1986. He was involved in operations against suspected Palestinian militants.
Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator who has been missing since he parachuted from a fighter jet in Lebanon in 1986. Undated handout photo: Reuters
A faction of Shia Muslims called the Believers’ Resistance captured Arad alive after he landed, and released several photos of him before all trace of him was lost.
Arad is believed to have been held in Nabi Chit until 1988, after which he disappeared following heavy fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in the village of Meidoun, further south.
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Meanwhile, Arad’s wife, Tami, has urged Israeli leaders not to endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers in their search.
“Our desire to know what happened to Ron stopped when it endangered the Israeli army,” he wrote on Facebook.
“For 40 years, we lived with the fact that Ron was missing, and we wanted to know what happened to Ron, but not in any other way. The sanctity of life was above any closing of the circle of certainty for us.”
Adraee said Israeli troops suffered no casualties in the operation.
