A UN report released yesterday said that three Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah guerrillas in October last year may have sustained serious injuries, and possibly have even died from their wounds.
The report also said that officials in the world body were guilty of lapses of judgement but not malicious behaviour, regarding the decision not to make Israel aware of information and videotapes related to the kidnapping.
The report quoted the deputy head of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in south Lebanon saying that there was a lot of blood on items retrieved from vehicles used in the kidnapping, and that this could be a sign that the soldiers had not survived.
After denying for months that it had a videotape related to the kidnapping, the UN admitted in early July that it had footage, taken by Indian UNIFIL soldiers some 18 hours after the October 7th abduction. Israel had long insisted there was a tape. Information about the soldiers possibly being seriously injured was also never communicated to Israel.
While insisting that the UN had not found any videotape of the abduction, Mr Joseph Connor, the UN undersecretary-general for management, said that the failure to inform Israel was the result of "lapses in judgment and failures in communication, not from conspiracies".
Israel has demanded to view an unedited version of the tape, but so far the UN has refused to agree, saying it is only prepared to hand over the tapes with the faces of Hizbullah guerrillas blurred. The UN fears Hizbullah reprisals against UNIFIL troops.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, focused on the news that the soldiers might be dead. "I have no definitive information on this and I will continue to fight for their return."
Israel got support yesterday for its policy of targeting Palestinian militants from an unexpected quarter, the US Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney.
Mr Cheney said: "If you've got an organisation that has plotted or is plotting some kind of suicide bomber attack, for example, and they (the Israelis) have hard evidence of who it is and where they're located, I think there's some justification in their trying to protect themselves by pre-empting," he said. His remarks contradicted the US State Department.
In Tel Aviv yesterday, security guards at a bus station apprehended a Palestinian woman who was carrying a bag containing a 4 kg explosive device.