Israel Matzav

New footage released of Har Dov abduction, Ron Arad

A Lebanese film documenting the negotiation process over the 2003-return of the three soldiers' bodies was aired Tuesday night on Channel 10 and showed never-seen-before footage released by Hizbullah of the actual kidnapping and of missing IAF navigator Ron Arad speaking to his captors, the first time his voice has been heard since he was taken hostage in 1986.

The detonation of a roadside bomb followed by another bomb that blew a hole in the security fence was how Hizbullah succeeded in kidnapping and killing the three soldiers in October 2000.

The footage, filmed by Hizbullah, shows how the unarmored jeep carrying Omar Sawayid, Benny Avraham and Adi Avitan, drove up along the northern border fence until it was hit by a Hizbullah-planted bomb. Seconds later, Hizbullah guerrillas are seen running to the gate, planting an explosive device and detonating it to open a passage for a 4 x 4 jeep, which then entered into Israel and picked up the three soldiers, seen dragged into the car.

A total of three-and-a-half minutes passed from the initial explosion of the roadside bomb and until the Hizbullah car left Israel and returned to Lebanon with the soldiers although no IDF presence was seen or heard in the area. According to the investigation of the cross-border kidnap attack, it took the IDF close to 20 minutes to send troops to the scene of the kidnapping and another 20 minutes to dispatch helicopters to begin searching for the runaway Hizbullah car. It was, however, too late.

The parents of the soldiers accused the United Nations of cooperating with the Hizbullah's cross-border attack by filming it and then passing on the footage to the Lebanese producers who made the movie

"From the movie it is clear that the UN cooperated with the attack. We told this then to [UN Secretary General] Kofi Annan but he preferred to lie," said Haim Avraham, father of Benny. "Hizbullah did its best to erase any UN cooperation from the movie but the UN's lies do become clear in the movie. They filmed the kidnapping and knew all along what was happening."

The parents also accused Hizbullah of murdering the soldiers in "cold blood," claiming that the footage from the movie showed that at least one of them was still alive following the explosion of a roadside, which was until now believed to have immediately killed all three. "We saw the last moments of our children," Avraham said. "But what is clear is that they murdered our sons in cold blood following the kidnapping."

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:52 PM