Kamal Ghorui
An Israeli special forces operation in eastern Lebanon aimed at locating the remains of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad left 41 people dead and 40 wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.The overnight operation targeted the town of Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley and involved air strikes and ground clashes, leaving behind gutted buildings, torn-off roofs and scattered munitions around a large crater in the area.
“The sounds of the explosions were like something out of a movie,” resident Mohammed Mussa, 55, told Agence France-Presse during a media visit organised by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. “We later realised there was a commando operation under way,” he said.Residents said the raid triggered clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in the area. The blasts were powerful enough to hurl a car onto the second floor of a nearby building, while several homes were heavily damaged.Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes on Nabi Sheet and surrounding areas killed 41 people and injured 40 others.Israel’s military said it had issued evacuation warnings earlier on Friday, prompting residents to move children out of the town. “We prepared and evacuated the children from the town to protect them,” Nabi Sheet mayor Hani Moussawi said.The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Saturday that it had carried out a special operation overnight in Lebanon in an attempt to locate Arad’s remains but failed to find any trace of the navigator, who has been missing since 1986.“The IDF will continue to operate relentlessly, day and night, out of a deep commitment to bringing all of Israel’s sons, the fallen and the missing, back home to Israel,” it said in a statement.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said that although the mission did not succeed, Israel remained committed to finding all its missing servicemen.Arad was captured after ejecting from his aircraft over Lebanon in 1986, when his combat jet went down during a mission. He is widely presumed dead, but his remains have never been recovered.
