Today, a team of Israeli security experts, led by Moshe Zarka, head of the intelligence section responsible for missing Israelis, will be watching the two videos filmed by UNIFIL soldiers immediately following the kidnapping of three IDF soldiers last year. The team will be allowed to examine the tapes, along with personal items recovered from the kidnap vehicle, as necessary. The team will then return to Israel, but without the videos or the belongings.
The viewing in Geneva was a compromise arrangement agreed upon after the Israeli team objected to a UN decision not to allow them to watch the videos more than once, following a viewing arranged at the UN headquarters in New York last month. The Israeli experts were then invited to accompany the families of the kidnapped soldiers to another viewing of the videotapes in Europe. However, when it became clear that the UN was not going to release the soldiers’ personal items to them, the families refused to attend the meeting.
The viewing in Geneva was a compromise arrangement agreed upon after the Israeli team objected to a UN decision not to allow them to watch the videos more than once, following a viewing arranged at the UN headquarters in New York last month. The Israeli experts were then invited to accompany the families of the kidnapped soldiers to another viewing of the videotapes in Europe. However, when it became clear that the UN was not going to release the soldiers’ personal items to them, the families refused to attend the meeting.