The Israeli military announced on Sunday, May 11, that it had recovered the body of Sgt. First Class Tzvika Feldman, a soldier missing for 43 years, through a covert mission deep inside Syrian territory.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in collaboration with the Mossad intelligence agency, carried out the operation. “The body of Sgt. First Class Tzvika Feldman was located in central Syria and returned to Israel during a special mission conducted by the IDF and Mossad,” the military confirmed in a statement, as reported by AFP. Feldman went missing during the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub, a fierce confrontation between Israeli and Syrian forces in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border.
He disappeared alongside fellow soldiers Zachariah Baumel and Yehuda Katz. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the decades-long efforts to trace the missing soldiers. He praised the successful mission and emphasized the nation’s ongoing commitment to locating every missing service member.