Israeli raid searching for missing pilot leaves 41 dead in Lebanon
Israeli special forces in search of pilot Ron Arad killed at least 41 people and displaced 450 in Lebanon
An Israeli search for a missing IDF pilot has left dozens dead in Lebanon, after the commando force tasked with finding his grave clashed with Hezbollah.
Listen to this article
According to the Lebanese army and state media, an Israeli commando force landed on the mountains along the border with Syria in disguise, having arrived via helicopter.
Then they headed to the eastern town of Nabi Chit, where they began digging up the suspected grave of IDF navigator Ron Arad, who has been missing for around forty years.
The unit, which Lebanese army commander General Rudolphe Haikal claimed was dressed in Lebanese army uniforms, then clashed with Hezbollah and local fighters.
The conflict left at least 41 dead and an additional 40 injured - all Lebanese - according to Lebanon's health ministry.
A local resident of Nabi Chit told a news agency that the Israeli force entered the town and dug up a grave in a cemetery before it left.
Read more: UK aircraft carrier prepares for possible Middle East deployment in five days
Read more: Trump tells Starmer UK 'not needed' in Middle East war as he claims US has 'already won'
General Haikal also claimed Israel used ambulances with signs of Hezbollah's Islamic Health Organization during the operation.
Hezbollah confirmed its members clashed with the Israeli force - in what is understood to have developed into a gunfight.
They also said Israel's air force undertook around 40 airstrikes in the area so that the ground unit was then able to withdraw.
It is understood that civilians were killed as a result.
Following the operation, the Israeli army's Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee posted online that Arad's remains had not been found, implying the grave the unit dug up was not that of the pilot.
He also said no Israeli casualties were reported in the operation.
Arad went missing after parachuting from a fighter jet that crashed in Lebanon in 1986, and was involved in an operation against suspected Palestinian militants.
He was captured by a Shiite Muslim faction called the Believers' Resistance after he landed, and they released some photos of him early on.
All traces of Arad lter disappeared, although it was believed he was held in Nabi Chit until 1988, when a brutal clash between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in the village of Meidoun, further south, broke out.
He has not been seen since.
Arad's wife Tami has sine urged Israel's leaders not to endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers in the search, writing on Facebook: "Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it endangers Israeli soldiers."
"For 40 years, we have lived with the fact that Ron is missing, and we want to know what happened to Ron, but not at any price. The sanctity of life is above any closing of the circle of certainty for us."