Mystery surrounds Israeli raid in Lebanon's Nabi Chit as army searches for missing pilot Ron Arad

Conflicting reports have emerged about a nighttime Israeli military operation in the eastern Lebanese town of Nabi Chit, near the town's cemetery, amid claims that the objective may have been to retrieve the remains of missing Israeli pilot Ron Arad.

The reported incursion has drawn attention to one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of the Israeli Air Force.

According to information circulating on Friday, Israeli forces may have taken with them a Lebanese General Security officer who had previously been abducted, bringing him to cemeteries in Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley to guide them to what they believed could be the burial site of Arad.

Arad, born in 1958, disappeared in Lebanon in 1986 after his aircraft went down during a military mission carried out by the Israeli Air Force over the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. His fate remains one of the most mysterious cases in Israeli military history.

On October 16, 1986, Arad took part in an airstrike targeting a site in Sidon. During the mission, a technical malfunction led to an explosion near the aircraft, causing it to crash. Arad and the pilot, Yishai Aviram, managed to eject by parachute. Israeli forces later rescued Aviram, but Arad was captured inside Lebanese territory.

According to Israeli accounts, members of the Amal Movement detained Arad before he was later handed over to Amal's security official, Mustafa Dirani. From that point onward, his trail disappeared, and conflicting narratives emerged about what ultimately happened to him.

Over the decades, Israel has conducted several intelligence investigations and operations to determine Arad's fate. In 1994, Israeli forces abducted Dirani from Lebanon for interrogation about the case, but the questioning failed to produce conclusive information.

Israeli intelligence assessments have suggested that Arad may have died in the late 1980s, while other reports indicate he may have remained alive for several years before later dying. However, Israel still officially considers him missing due to the lack of definitive evidence.

Nearly four decades after his disappearance, the case remains one of the most sensitive files in Israel, with successive governments continuing efforts to uncover information about his fate or the location of his burial.

In this context, Israel's public broadcaster Kan (Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation) cited sources as saying that the Israeli army carried out operations inside Lebanese territory overnight in an attempt to locate Arad's body.