TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The Israeli army said Monday it believes three soldiers whom Lebanese Hezbollah militants abducted last year are dead.
The head of the army's Manpower Directorate, Major General Gil Regev, told reporters the army was basing its conclusion on intelligence gathered from reliable, varied information from several sources. He would not detail nor hint at the kind of information the Israelis have, but said it did not have any body parts.
"Our assessment from now on is that they are dead," Gen. Regev said.
The chief chaplain, Brig. Gen. Israel Weiss, is the only person authorized to announce death in such cases and the army passed the information to him to decide whether to declare the soldiers, "Fallen whose place of burial is unknown."
Hezbollah abducted the three at the Mount Dov area, on Oct. 7, 2001. The soldiers were sent to check a gate at the border fence following a Hezbollah demonstration there. The guerrillas ambushed the soldiers, detonated a bomb, then crossed the United Nations set boundary line and made away with the three.
Gen. Regev said the army assumed the three soldiers might have sustained fatal injuries during the blast, or died of their wounds a short while later.
Hezbollah has refused to divulge details about their condition or let foreigners, including the International Red Cross, visit them. Foreign governments from Germany to Japan tried to intercede with no apparent success. Hezbollah demanded Israel free Lebanese and Palestinians, some of whom have been detained as hostages.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told United Press International several months ago that he was ready for a deal but none emerged.
Gen. Regev would not say where the new information came from. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lankri, said it did not come from there and the ICRC's spokesman in Israel Uriel Masad said they learned of the developments from the televised news conference.
Hezbollah has also been holding an Israeli civilian, Elhanan Tennenbaum. Hezbollah said it captured him alive. Israeli officials said Hezbollah kidnapped him.
The soldiers' parents and brothers did not accept the army's assessment as final.
"The slight probability (that the intelligence is wrong) gives me hope they are still alive and so I will believe until I see otherwise with my own eyes," Beny Avraham's father, Haim, said.
