Missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad. Photo: Israeli Air Force Archives/Facebook (Israel Hayom).Israeli Air Force navigator Lt. Col Ron ‎Arad

JNS.org – The Israeli Air Force has released several previously unseen photos of Israeli Air Force navigator Lt. Col Ron ‎Arad, who has been classified as “missing in action” ‎since October 1986, when his plane went down over Lebanon and he ejected and was ‎captured by local Shi’ite terrorist group Amal.

The captured navigator was handed over to Hezbollah and ‎later may have been handed over to Iran. ‎ He has not been seen ‎‎‎or heard from since 1988, and is widely presumed to be dead.‎

The photos, posted on the IAF’s ‎Facebook page, show Arad before his ‎capture. In one photo, Arad is seen in his flight suit, ‎looking to the side. Another photo shows him with a ‎group of soldiers and a third shows him in casual dress, presumably ‎on leave, posing with a ‎group of friends.‎

Israel has made considerable efforts to try to find Arad or learn his fate. Evidence led officials to ‎conclude that he probably died in captivity between ‎‎1995 and 1997.

However, in October 2016, a joint ‎investigation by the Mossad intelligence agency and military ‎intelligence, based on new information received in ‎the previous two years, concluded that Arad had most ‎likely died in 1988, two years after he was ‎captured. ‎

In the absence of concrete evidence, the ‎state has refrained from officially declaring Arad ‎a fallen soldier whose burial place is unknown.