{"id":38821,"date":"2019-04-05T03:23:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38821"},"modified":"2019-04-05T03:23:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:23:33","slug":"putin-says-body-of-missing-israeli-soldier-found-by-russian-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38821","title":{"rendered":"Putin says body of missing Israeli soldier found by Russian army"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nMOSCOW: The body of an Israeli soldier missing since the 1982 Lebanon War was found by the Russian and Syrian armies and returned, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sergeant First Class Zachary Baumel had been listed as missing along with two other Israeli soldiers after a deadly battle with Syrian forces in a Lebanese village.<\/p>\n

Russia said it handed over the remains to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting Putin five days before he is to seek a fifth term in office in a difficult election.<\/p>\n

Baumel was buried later Thursday at a military cemetery in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, 69, is running in the April 9 vote despite facing potential corruption charges and experts said he hoped the Moscow visit will increase his chances of success on election day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur military together with Syrian partners found the place of his burial,\u201d Putin said of Baumel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very happy that he will be able to receive the right military honors in his homeland.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu added that Baumel\u2019s father was no longer alive. \u201cHis mother is around 100-years-old. Zachary also has a sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Russia nor Israel have given details on how or where the remains were found.<\/p>\n

Syrian state news agency SANA said Damascus had no details on the discovery of the corpse.<\/p>\n

Putin said only that Syria \u2014 with which Israel has technically been at war \u2014 participated in the operation.<\/p>\n

The return of the remains of soldiers missing in action is a highly important issue in Israel, which has fought repeated wars with its Arab neighbors since the state of Israel was established in 1948.<\/p>\n

The Russian defense ministry said it handed over Baumel\u2019s remains to Netanyahu in a ceremony at its headquarters.<\/p>\n

A video released by the ministry showed the Israeli prime minister and Russian armed forces chief Valery Gerasimov laying flowers on a casket covered with an Israeli flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank you, on behalf of the people of Israel, on behalf of the soldiers of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), and on behalf of the mothers and fathers of all our soldiers,\u201d Netanyahu said at the ceremony in remarks released by his office.<\/p>\n

He also praised Russia\u2019s \u201cenormous sacrifice\u201d during World War II, including in \u201csaving the Jewish people from the Nazi monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin said \u201cit was not easy\u201d for Russian special forces to find the remains, adding that \u201call the necessary genetic tests have been completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin said he valued Netanyahu\u2019s \u201cattitude to the memory of Red Army soldiers,\u201d adding that Baumel shared the same fate as thousands of Soviet soldiers who went missing during World War II.<\/p>\n

Baumel, who was born in the US in 1960 but immigrated to Israel, had been missing since what is known as the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in a Lebanese village of the same name near the Syrian border. Some 20 Israeli soldiers were killed.<\/p>\n

Tank driver Baumel and two other soldiers, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, had been listed as missing and presumed dead. The other two remain missing.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu said he asked Putin two years ago to help in the search for the remains of the missing men.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou personally responded and gave the order to help in this holy deed,\u201d he said, thanking the Russian leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not forget this act, it will go down in history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW: The body of an Israeli soldier missing since the 1982 Lebanon War was found by the Russian and Syrian armies and returned, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Sergeant First Class Zachary Baumel had been listed as missing along with two other Israeli soldiers after a deadly battle with Syrian forces in a Lebanese village.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}