The Missing Soldiers of Sultan Yacoub: A Lingering Mystery

The Year: 1982. The Location: Sultan Yacoub, the Golan Heights. The Hope: Perhaps they are still alive.

The 'Sultan Yacoub' battle remains one of the most painful events of the 'Lebanon War.' It was marked by an Israeli defeat and the disappearance of three reservists: Zachary Baumel, Yehuda Katz, and Zvi Feldman, whose fates remain unknown.

The families are the ones who suffer most from this tragic event. As Pnina Heyman, Yehuda Katz's sister, states: "We don't have a memorial day; we never knew what happened to Yehuda, so for us, every day is filled with heavy emotions, as we hover between hope and despair."

On the 20th of Sivan, 1982, the fifth day of the war, just before a ceasefire with the Syrian army, Israeli forces were ordered to capture a strategic junction near the village of Sultan Yacoub, unaware of the large Syrian forces nearby. The Syrians, positioned on higher ground, attacked, causing chaos among the Israeli troops. They inadvertently fired on each other, and eventually, the battalion withdrew, leaving behind 8 tanks and 6 soldiers. By the end of the day, it became clear that one soldier had been killed, two were captured and later released, but Yehuda Katz, Zvi Feldman, and Zachary Baumel seemed to vanish.

"This battle is a lesson in how not to conduct combat. It was a disastrous night battle between armored forces and Syrians. Commanders fled, leaving troops behind," says Heyman.

Zvi Feldman was born in Tel Aviv to a Holocaust survivor father and a mother from Morocco. Astoundingly, she dreamed of his disappearance days before the event. Yehuda Katz was born in Ramat Gan to Holocaust survivor parents and studied at 'Kerem B'Yavneh' yeshiva, known for his love of Torah study. Zachary Baumel, born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Israel and studied at 'Har Etzion' Yeshiva in Alon Shvut. Despite some parents passing away over the years, these families tirelessly fight for their loved ones, convinced beyond doubt they are alive. "We are strong in our faith, we are not fools, and there exists an answer regarding the fate of the missing. As long as we breathe, we will pursue the truth," affirms Heyman.

What happened to them? The prevailing belief is that they were captured by the Syrian army, some surviving and some not. The British military attaché in Damascus during the first Lebanon War, Colonel Adrian Peck, testified that he saw a tank moved from the Sultan Yacoub battle scene to Damascus, displayed prominently. According to a witness who spoke with the colonel, "Israeli prisoners were on the tank, but one appeared lifeless. That day, I saw another Israeli tank, which was loaded onto a Soviet transport aircraft and flown to Moscow."

However, members of the Jibril group involved in the battle claimed that the three soldiers were killed, with no known burial site. In 1993, PLO representatives handed a piece of Zachary Baumel's dog tag to Israeli negotiators, implying his death.

Similarly, Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein announced the three were killed by Abu-Jihad's unit, but later, the Palestinian Authority conveyed information suggesting their bodies were buried in Damascus, including precise grave locations. Israel's investigation through mediaries found they were not in a Jewish cemetery in Damascus. So, where are they?

Indeed, many in the security establishment believe the three perished in battle or were later executed by Syrians. In 2004, Chief Military Rabbi Yisrael Weiss considered declaring them as "soldiers whose burial place is unknown," but family protests halted the initiative. In their view, they are still living.

Again this year, the issue resurfaced when Australian TV network ABC reported that Ben Zygier – the mysterious Prisoner X – was detained for disrupting efforts to retrieve the missing Sultan Yacoub soldiers. However, their families remain adamant: "The soldiers are alive. We must not relent until they return home. Everything else is just a distraction."