Russian soldiers began digging in the cemetery at the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus late last week in search of the remains of a missing Israeli Defense Forces soldier, Israeli news agency N12 reported, citing media Syria.
Local reports suggested that the Russian military was searching for the body of an IDF soldier who fell in the First Lebanese War in 1982.
The remains of Zacharia Baumel, right, were recovered from Yarmouk in 2019; the bodies of Zvi Feldman, left, and Yehuda Katz, center, have never been found
The remains of the American-born IDF soldier Zacharia Baumel were found at the same location two years ago and returned to Israel by the Russian government, with the permission of the Syrian ruling elite.
Baumel and two of his companions were lost at the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the First Lebanese War of 1982, when their unit was attacked by Syrian troops near the Syrian-Lebanese border. Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman are still missing from the battle.
The battle took place on the sixth day of the war, with the official name of the Israeli Operation Operation for Galilee, in June 1982. Israel suffered 20 confirmed casualties in the battle, as well as dozens of casualties.
Russia has long returned IDF tank linked to Katz, Baumel and Feldman captured at Sultan Yacoub by Syrian troops
Six soldiers were not counted at the time, but three were later found. One was killed in battle and buried in Syria, with his body returned to Israel after the war; another was captured by the Syrians and released two years later; and the third was captured by a terrorist group and released through a prisoner exchange contract that occurred three years later.
Reports in Syria say Russian forces began digging in the cemetery last Thursday, using a special medical truck to test DNA samples after excavations at grave sites.
A number of unpublished bodies were exhumed, the edges of the cemetery were declared a closed weapon area and civilians were barred from entering.
Zacharia Baumel was laid to rest at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem in April 2019
(Photo: EPA)
Baumel was laid to rest at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem at a special reception on April 4, 2019, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.
Reports in Syria say that the warming of the links between Jerusalem and Moscow has led to the latest excavation.
The Yarmouk refugee camp, formerly home to about 150,000 people and once the capital of the Palestinian Diaspora, was destroyed during the Syrian civil war.
At one time it came under the control of the Islamic State terrorist group and was otherwise held for years under siege by the ruling of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has since recaptured the area.