IDF artillery soldier Guy Hever went missing from his army base in the Golan Heights on the morning of August 17, 1997, armed and wearing his uniform and dog tags.
His family and the IDF met for months with top government officials, United Nations diplomats and the Red Cross in an effort to locate him. Israel Police and IDF officers searched for him using high technology equipment, all to no avail.
Now the Syrian-backed ‘Resistance Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights’, which appeared on the regional scene last June, says it is holding an Israeli MIA.
The group officially declared itself June 26th, 2006 in a ceremony at the Syria-Israel border -- the day after Hamas terrorists from Gaza kidnapped IDF officer Gilad Shalit.
The group issued a statement late Tuesday (yesterday) offering a prisoner swap for the soldier who officials believe may be Guy Hever.
“Don’t think that your millions of dollars will bring back your soldier missing from the Golan,” read the statement. “You know very well how you can get him back.”
The statement also included a demand for the release of nine Syrian prisoners being held in Israeli jails including at least several Druze. Two are in solitary confinement. Four have been imprisoned for more than 22 years.
Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened recently to take the Golan Heights by force if Israel continues to refuse to renew negotiations. A Syrian source said the new terrorist organization was formed specifically to start a “guerilla war” with Israel over the Golan.
The army has begun military exercises in the north in preparation for a possible attack on the northern border.
Hever’s family first heard the news from reporters who came to interview them. “I haven’t received new information from any official source regarding my son,” Rina Hever, mother of the missing soldier, told a Ynet news reporter. “I know he’s being held in Syria. I’ve been certain of this for the last 10 years and kept saying it. There was no other option.”
Security officials said there was no other information available on the claim and expressed skepticism about the statement which they said had to be “examined very thoroughly.” Druze community leaders in the Golan agreed, saying they were not convinced the group was holding Hever.
Military officials added they had been in touch with the families of all IDF soldiers who have gone missing in action. “We are in contact with the Hever family and the families of other missing soldiers and we accompany them all the way,” said a security source.
Other terrorist groups claimed responsibility for Hever’s disappearance in the past, said the source, adding that all the claims are investigated.
The IDF has renewed searches along the Syrian border in recent months around the area of the base where Hever was stationed. An underwater scanner has been used to search nearby bodies of water and other equipment employed to survey minefields near the base.
The searches have revealed nothing.