{"id":521472,"date":"2026-03-08T00:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/521472\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T00:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T00:29:09","slug":"israels-search-in-lebanon-for-remains-of-long-lost-weapons-officer-triggers-deadly-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/521472\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s search in Lebanon for remains of long-lost weapons officer triggers deadly shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Destroyed buildings and vehicles are left in the wake of deadly Israeli strikes on Nabi Chit, a village near Lebanon\u2019s border with Syria that is considered a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.Oliver Marsden\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Even in a region-wide war that has been chaotic from the start, Saturday morning\u2019s shootout in Lebanon\u2019s Bekaa Valley stands out.<\/p>\n

Just before dawn, four Israeli helicopters approached Nabi Chit, a farming town not far from Lebanon\u2019s border with Syria that is considered a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Two of the helicopters landed, and the Israeli commandos on board disembarked and headed straight for the local cemetery.<\/p>\n

Their mission was to look \u2013 once more \u2013 for the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli air force weapons officer who has been missing since parachuting out of his damaged plane during an operation over Lebanon in 1986. <\/p>\n

What happened to Mr. Arad is one of Israel\u2019s most enduring mysteries, one the country\u2019s Mossad spy agency has repeatedly tried to solve. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Saturday raid in Nabi Chit is the deepest Israeli troops have been deployed into Lebanon since the war erupted Monday.Oliver Marsden\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, Israel\u2019s quest to find Mr. Arad\u2019s remains cost the lives of 41 Lebanese.<\/p>\n

The Israeli landing in Nabi Chit was spotted by local residents, as well as Hezbollah forces in the area. According to a Hezbollah statement, a battle erupted involving light and medium weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clash escalated after the enemy force was exposed,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe enemy resorted to intense fire, launching approximately 40 air strikes, using both warplanes and helicopters to secure the force\u2019s withdrawal from the engagement area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hezbollah\u2019s decision to enter the war sparks anger and confusion among Lebanese<\/a><\/p>\n

Three Lebanese soldiers and one member of the country\u2019s General Security intelligence service were among those killed, marking the first reported deaths of uniformed Lebanese soldiers in the six-day-old conflict. The Lebanese army has thus far stood aside as Israel and Hezbollah have traded blows, and it wasn\u2019t immediately clear if the dead soldiers had taken part in the firefight in Nabi Chit.<\/p>\n

It also wasn\u2019t clear whether the death toll included any Hezbollah fighters, since the militia hasn\u2019t been releasing casualty figures. Hezbollah\u2019s statement said \u201cresidents of neighbouring villages\u201d had provided \u201csupporting fire\u201d during the battle.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said it suffered no casualties in the operation.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A large crater caused by a missile strike in the centre of Nabi Chit.Oliver Marsden\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The raid was the deepest Israeli troops have been deployed into Lebanon since the war erupted Monday. <\/p>\n

In the aftermath, photos emerged online of a freshly dug-up grave in the Nabi Chit cemetery. The upended granite gravestone said Sobhi Hussein Shokr had been buried there in 1989.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military acknowledged Saturday that special forces \u201coperated overnight in an attempt to locate\u201d Mr. Arad\u2019s remains but did not find any at the site. <\/p>\n

Mr. Arad has been officially missing since his fighter jet was damaged during an operation targeting a Palestine Liberation Organization base in Lebanon. Both Mr. Arad, who was 28 at the time, and pilot Yishai Aviram were able to parachute out. <\/p>\n

But while Mr. Aviram was rescued by Israeli troops, Mr. Arad was captured by Amal, a Shia Muslim militia involved in Lebanon\u2019s multisided 1975-1990 civil war. It\u2019s believed he was later handed over either to Hezbollah or Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t been heard from since 1987, when Amal provided photos of him to Israel as proof of life during negotiations for his release. An Israeli military commission into his disappearance found that he likely died around 1995. His last known location was Nabi Chit.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Wehbi Moussawi, a local official, stands in his home in Nabi Chit which was destroyed by an Israeli air strike.Oliver Marsden\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A resident of Nabi Chit observes the damage caused by the Israeli raid as a Hezbollah flag protrudes from a pile of rubble.Oliver Marsden\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

While the Israeli military said Saturday that it would \u201ccontinue to operate relentlessly, day and night, out of a deep commitment to bringing all of Israel\u2019s sons, the fallen and the missing, back home to the State of Israel,\u201d Mr. Arad\u2019s widow asked that the army not risk the lives of any more soldiers trying to find out what had happened to her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our view, the sanctity of life comes before the commitment to return a soldier\u2019s remains for burial. This is also our worldview regarding our loved one who disappeared nearly 40 years ago,\u201d Tami Arad wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, she added: \u201cWe ask in the strongest possible terms: Do not order operations that involve even the slightest risk to soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 41 deaths in Nabi Chit pushed this week\u2019s death toll in Lebanon to 294. The country was dragged into the region-wide war Monday when Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israel in retaliation for the Feb. 28 assassination of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening salvo of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Destroyed buildings and vehicles are left in the wake of deadly Israeli strikes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-521472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-headlines","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-top-news","53":"tag-top-stories","54":"tag-topnews","55":"tag-topstories","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}