Guy Hever
Guy HeverIsrael news photo: guyhever.com

In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Haim Avraham, the father of IDF soldier Benny Avraham, who was one of three soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2000 and killed by the terrorist group, praised the army's decision to resume the search for missing soldier Guy Hever. The search will focus on the areas where Hever was last seen on the day of his disappearance in 1997, in hope of discovering new findings that will shed light on the case.

Avraham said that the decision was extremely important. “The IDF has taken great effort to find Guy Hever after he disappeared in the Golan Heights, but so far no evidence of what happened to him has turned up at all. That's why it's important to keep looking.”

Benny Avraham, along with Adi Avitan and Omar Sawaid, were kidnapped by Hezbollah as they were patrolling an area near the Lebanese border in 2000. Avraham's body, along with the bodies of the other two soldiers, were returned to Israel in 2004, along with IDF officer Elchanan Tanenbaum, in exchange for 435 terrorists.

Although his son's fate is now known, the fate of many others, such as the soldiers abducted in the Battle of Sultan Yakoub in 1982, are not known, said Avraham. Three IDF soldiers - Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, and Zvi Feldman – are still missing.

“The army tried to have them declared as dead, but the families refused, and the search continues,” Avraham said. “But there are other missing soldiers, some still from the War of Independence whose fates have never been discovered. There is an army unit that concentrates on finding these soldiers. I know for a fact that the army is still looking for the burial place of Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy who was captured by Syria and executed in 1966.”