Zachary Baumel 10848 Days Missing

Tzvi Feldman 10848 Days Missing

Yehuda Katz 10848 Days Missing

Ron Arad 9260 Days Missing

Guy Hever 5302 Days Missing

Majdy Halabi 2465 Days Missing

TSVI FELDMAN

Tsvi Feldman was born on 29th December 1956 in Tel Aviv. His father Avraham came to Israel from Europe after losing his entire family in the Holocaust. His mother Penina immigrated to Israel from Morrocco. Tsvi is the oldest of four children and his birth had signalled the beginning of a new future in a new land for a family that had all but perished in Eastern Europe.

Tsvi worked tirelessly to help his struggling family make ends meet. On completing his regular military service he worked as a nature guide for high school groups and had been accepted at University. He was also considering marriage.

Several years earlier, as a high school student, Tsvi had written a poem regarding captivity, which in view of what his future held, has taken on a chilling connotation:

I Am Here
By Tsvi Feldman 1975

I am here, yes it’s me
The last of the last

So much time has already passed since then
Much more than a few years

I didn’t fall alone
Definitely not

It’s just a pity that so many did
And all the good ones

As with Zackary Baumel and Yehuda Katz since the battle in *Sultan Yaqub there has been no information about Tzvi’s whereabouts and therefore no closure for the family.

*THE BATTLE OF SULTAN YAQUB

On 11th June 1982, just hours before the ceasefire five Israeli soldiers went missing in battle with Syrian and Palestinian forces near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yaqub. This was the largest tank battle in Israel’s history.

In the six-hour ordeal the Israeli Army lost eight tanks and had about 20 soldiers killed. The Israelis failed to destroy the disabled M-48A3 Magach-3 tanks they left behind and they were recovered the next day by the Syrians. At least one is now on display at the Tishreen Panorama Military Museum in Damascus.

As Tank Commander Zachary Baumel was in one of the tanks with Tzvi
Feldman, Hezi Shay, and Ariel Lieberman who were all captured as war
prisoners along with Yehuda Katz.

Several years later Hezi Shay and the body of Ariel Lieberman were returned to Israel in prisoner exchanges. Zachary Baumel, Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz remain unaccounted for. It is believed that they were paraded through the streets of Damascus on one of the tanks. Time magazine reporter Dean Brelis testified to having seen the three captives alive at the time.