Kidnapped Israeli Soldiers' Relative Demand UN ClarificationA relative of the three Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers captured by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas last month has asked the UN for clarification of reports that one of the soldiers had been seriously wounded during the abduction.Yoel Avitan, the uncle of Adi Avitan, told Israel Radio on Sunday that the UN had promised to look into the reports and would reply to the families. The Lebanese English-language Daily Star quoted Saturday a source with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as saying that the amount of blood found in one of the two cars used to transfer the soldiers after the ambush was considerable, and that if it came from one person, he would have been in critical condition. However, a spokesman with UNIFIL said the UN forces did not release a formal statement on the issue, but it was possible that one of the UN staff involved in the matter spoke to a Daily Star reporter. In response to a statement made by Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz that Hezbollah, Lebanon and Syria are responsible for the safety of the kidnapped soldiers, the uncle said the families hold the government responsible for the fate of the soldiers. Hezbullah kidnapped the three soldiers on the Lebanese border on October 7 in a well-planned ambush which was seen as the most grave incident following the Israeli pullback from south Lebanon in May. There had been intensive international mediation efforts for the release of the soldiers while Hezbollah has demanded a swap of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. |
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