After decades during which the Israeli intelligence services focused on the hypothesis that the missing pilot, Ron Arad, was in Iran, a former Israeli intelligence official revealed a remarkable shift in the course of the case, stressing that the center of gravity in the search has today moved to Lebanon, where, according to him, “certain developments” were recorded, the details of which cannot be revealed.
These statements came during an interview conducted by “103FM” radio with Avi Kalo, former head of the Prisoners and Missing Persons Department in the Israeli Military Intelligence Division, who spoke with Barak Sari and Eli Ohana about the return of the remains of Yehuda Katz, the last of the missing people in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, and about the ongoing efforts to search for other missing Israelis.
“It is definitely an emotional day, and it surprised us all,” Callow said of the recovery of Katz’s remains. This is the last missing casualty from the First Lebanon War. His return is an expression of the security establishment’s deep commitment to returning the dead, in any way. The central shift in this issue occurred about a decade ago.”
He added that the case was preceded by “years of efforts to try to shed light on the fate of the missing,” noting that about 10 years ago a team was established that brought together all concerned parties and capabilities around one table, and launched a deep and long process.
He continued: “In the end, we established an operational body on the ground, and the issue of setting foot in the heart of Damascus during the era of Assad’s challenge was a huge challenge in itself, in addition to the intelligence challenge.”
Due to military censorship restrictions, Kalo refrained from revealing all the details, but said: “We are talking about another event on the battlefield, 3 kilometers to the south, on the same difficult day on June 11, 1982, and what resulted from that is important for understanding the historical perspective.”
He added that the identity of the parties that were present in the area, the geographical context, and the place to which the spoils of the Israeli army that were seized after the Battle of Sultan Yacoub were transferred were all factors that led to the circumstances in which Katz was removed from the battlefield to be different.
Calo described the path of research as a “Sisyphean journey,” adding: “Sometimes it is dark and difficult.” The public in Israel will only learn the details when it becomes possible to deliver the good news to the people, and before that to the family. “This is part of the tragedy sometimes.”
Regarding the feelings of the participants in the operation, he said that it was a state of “psychological elevation and elevation in the face of important tasks.”
He added: “There is something about the mission of prisoners and missing persons that carries a deep moral and emotional dimension. Everyone I know who has dealt with this issue over the years, thanks to those who implemented this stage within the relay race itself, has that moisture in the eyes and the affected heart in the face of the enormous emotion that accompanies a step like this. “There is a very deep connection to being Jews and Israelis in our unique and very complex reality.”
Kalo compared the chaos witnessed on the Sultan Yacoub battlefield to the events of October 7, saying: “Similar to October 7, when the chaos began there and confusion occurred after it became clear that the Israeli army was in a lower position on the ground, the mobs and crowds also arrived in the area.”
He added: “Israeli army tanks and equipment were looted, and the bodies of missing persons were lost on various paths. Today, the third path was closed after Yehuda Katz was found.”
At the conclusion of the interview, Kalo moved to the case of Israeli pilot Ron Arad, which for decades remained one of the most mysterious files in Israel, placing Lebanon once again at the heart of the investigation.
He said: “With regard to Ron Arad, and the ambiguity related to the area extending between Syria, Lebanon and Iran, the intelligence community has believed for years that Ron is being held in Iran. This has been proven to be incorrect.”
He added: “The center of gravity is currently in Lebanon. There are also certain developments in this case, and it is not possible to talk about all of them.”
He criticized the path followed by the Israeli agencies throughout the previous years, saying: “Here, too, there was confusion. For decades, they were preoccupied with Iran, but now the focus is on Lebanon.
Thus, the words of the former intelligence official reopen the Ron Arad file from the Lebanese portal after many years of focusing on Iran, in a shift that suggests that the Israeli security establishment is now basing the course of research on completely different hypotheses from those that led the investigation over the past decades.
