34 years later, Russia returns captured IDF tank to Israel

 

With no sign of the three Israeli soldiers who manned the tank during the First Lebanon War at the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, Russia agrees to return the tank to Israel to be used as a memorial.

By Jonathan Benedek/TPS

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his appreciation on Sunday for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signing of a presidential decree ordering the return of an IDF tank that was captured in 1982 during the First Lebanon War.

The captured Israeli tank currently on display at the Moscow Military Museum will return to Israel as the only reminder/memorial of the missing three IDF soldiers (inserted on photo) from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub. 

 

“I wish to thank the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, for responding to a request made by me and the IDF Chief of Staff to return the tank from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub to Israel,” said Netanyahu.

During the battle, the tank was captured by the Syrian army and eventually transported to the Soviet Union – then a Cold War ally of Syria. It has since remained in Moscow in a museum dedicated to armored tanks ever since.

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, then an officer during the First Lebanon War, whose artillery unit helped rescue a battalion of Israeli tanks trapped by a Syrian ambush in the Lebanese town of Sultan Yacoub, recalled his experiences of the war.

“We fired the whole night. In the morning the battalion was rescued, except for the one tank and the three missing soldiers, whose fate is still unknown,” said Ben-Dahan, referring to IDF soldiers Zachary Baumel, Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, who went missing during the battle and whose fate remains a mystery to this day.

All in all, over 20 Israeli soldiers were killed and eight tanks were lost in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.

“Hearing about the tank’s return sends me back 34 years,” Ben-Dahan said. “It gave me chills.”

L to R: missing soldiers Zvi Feldman, Yehuda Katz and Zachary Baumel

Ben-Dahan also expressed hope that the tank’s return might also bring with it news about the fate of the missing soldiers, though he said he cannot comment on any discussions or progress toward that goal.

Netanyahu raised the issue of returning the tank with Putin last month, after having received a request from IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot.

 

View original Ynet publication at:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4809306,00.html