Former Israeli Security Minister Naftali Bennett revealed a document in Arabic, allegedly written by late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, indicating the place of burial of three Israeli soldiers killed in the battle of Sultan Yaqoub in the Lebanese Bekaa, during the first Israeli war on Lebanon in 1982.
WallaNews, a Tel Aviv-based Hebrew news agency, said that the document contained a detailed map of the cemetery of Palestinian soldiers in the Yarmouk refugee camp, located near the Syrian capital, which was designated for the burial of Palestinian Liberation Organization martyrs who were killed after 1980.
The document also explains that the Syrians mummified Israeli corpses and placed them in fortified coffins in order to preserve them and facilitate the identification of their owners. An accurate description of the location of these graves says, “near the grave of the martyr Abdul Aziz Al-Wajih,” a PLO fighter.
The Israeli report said that Bennett obtained the document and transferred it to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July. The agency quoted a security official as saying that the information presented in the document was already well-known to the intelligence community.
Although the source noted that it was the handwriting of Yasser Arafat, he stressed that more evidence was needed.
“It is very similar to Arafat’s handwriting, but we do not have conclusive evidence of that,” he said.
In comments, a Palestinian official said that he was not surprised by the news, as “Arafat was keen to advance the peace process with Israel.” He said that Arafat abided by international treaties on human and prisoners’ rights.
It is noteworthy that two years ago, Russia sought to mediate between Syria and Israel in order to search for the bodies of Israeli soldiers buried in Syria.