Last update - 00:00 14/08/2007
Bodies of 5 missing soldiers identified after 59 years
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces announced Monday that the bodies of five IDF soldiers had been located, after they were killed in action nearly 60 years ago, in a battle to capture an Arab village near Tel Aviv in Israel's War of Independence.
The IDF's unit for locating soldiers who have gone missing in action was able to determine that the remains of the soldiers, who up until now were considered missing, lay in unmarked graves in the Nahalat Itzhak cemetery. Their families have been notified.
The five soldiers of the Battalion 52 of the Givati Brigade fell during a battle over "Pillbox Hill" near the Arab village of Tel Arish, which near the suburb of Holon. The battle took place on the 19 of Nissan, April 28, 1948, to gain free access between Jerusalem and Jaffa.
The crucial development in the decade-long probe into the identity of the bodies in the graves occurred nine months ago, when DNA extracted from the bones was compared to samples from family members who suspected their loved ones had died at Tel Arish.
To determine the soldiers' identities, the graves were dug up and DNA samples from the bodies were sent to a laboratory in the United States.
The Chief Rabbinate granted its permission to dig up the bodies after the IDF's missing soldiers unit determined "beyond reasonable doubt" that the IDF could use the DNA samples to determine the dead soldiers' identities. The breakthrough was made thanks to the possibility of carrying out the tests in the United States, using technology unavailable in Israel.
The men have been identified as First Lieutenant Yehiel ("Hilik") Rosenfeld, Private David Kohavi, Private Yitzhak Hamami, Private Yehoshua ("Yashka") Lustig and Menachem Kellerman.
The bodies of two other soldiers who went missing after the battle, Corporal Amos Danieli and Private Yitzhak ("Yitzhakaleh") Kandler, also of Battalion 52, are still missing.
"The nine months of waiting for the final results of the DNA tests were a time of taut nerves," said a source from the unit for the location of soldier missing in action. "We remained in close contact with the bereaved families."
The investigation was handled by the unit's reserves researchers: Captain Amir Rosenberg and Major Giora Aderet. They also used the services of the director of Sheba Hospital's Institute of Genetics, Professor Alon Peres.
For the initial four and a half years of the investigation, the researchers focused on reading written documents on the battle, and they reviewed testimonies, archive material and other documents. After they had finished reviewing the material, they set out to conduct field surveys, and interviewed soldiers who had survived the battle.
"We had a feeling we could determine the identities of some soldiers who fought at Tel Arish," recalled Rosenberg, a practicing attorney. The unit comprises 400 reserves researchers, who are split into some 100 investigation teams.
They are trying to locate the remains of a total of 109 fallen soldiers, which are currently missing, and the fates of 10 soldiers, who remain unknown.
The unit's commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Orly Cohen-Gefen, said that the unit has high hopes for advanced technology, as applied in the investigation of the battle at Tel Arish. "Technological breakthroughs will allow us to make headway with our cases," she said.
Cohen-Gefen added, however, that meticulous inspection of archived material can often be just as effective.
"In many cases, it's the little note that's buried beneath heaps of documents in the IDF central archive that does the trick, and allows us to make a breakthrough," she concluded. "We rely on belief and persistence, as well as the IDF code."