Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency tested DNA that it removed from a corpse discovered in a village in northern Lebanon that was believed to be the body of missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad; it also abducted an Iranian general from Syria and took him to a northern African country to interrogate him about Arad’s fate, the Saudi Arabian news website Al Arabiya reported. The London-based Arabic newspaper Rai al-Youm first reported on the kidnapping, noting that the general was later released. The reports came on Tuesday, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed on Monday that the operation had taken place, during a speech on the floor of the Knesset plenum, but was unable to provide any additional information about the secret operation or its findings.
He called it a “complex, wide-ranging and bold operation” that a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office later said was a “successful operation carried out while meeting exceptional operational objectives.”
The mission has been portrayed both as a success and as a failure. Bennett may have announced it in part to praise the Mossad publicly for the operartion and to reassure soldiers.
Arad ejected from a fighter jet over Lebanon in 1986 and was taken captive by Lebanese Shiite group Amal; he was later transferred to Iranian forces. He is believed to have died in 1988, based on a 2016 report by the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad. He remains classified as missing in action, however.