"Israel" urged to clarify fate of resistance fighters killed in 1978

Source: Daily Star, 03-02-2009

BEIRUT: The families of two resistance fighters whose bodies were supposed to have been returned as part of a prisoner exchange last year held a news conference on Sunday to demand "Israel" returned them. Lebanese national Yahya Skaff and Palestinian Dalal Moghraby were among a unit of 11 Fedayeen (self-sacrificing) fighters who hijacked and blew up an "Israeli" (military) bus in March 1978, killing 36 "Israelis". Moghraby's corpse was later shown on "Israeli" television being pumped full of bullets and dragged across the ground by "Israel's" current defense (war) minister, Ehud Barak.

"Israel" reported that Skaff also died in the operation and agreed to return his and Moghraby's bodies as part of a prisoner exchange with Hizbullah in July 2008.
But Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last Thursday accused "Israel" of failing to deliver their bodies, along with 350 others. DNA tests carried out on what were thought to be the bodies of Moghraby and Skaff proved inconclusive, Nasrallah said.

Speaking in the northern Lebanese town of Behneen, Skaff's brother said he believed "Israel" had lied about his brother's death. "We do not trust this arrogant enemy and its statements. We believe Yahya is still a prisoner with the enemy," he told reporters. Skaff's brother urged Nasrallah, the Lebanese government and humanitarian organizations to persevere with efforts to locate Yahya's whereabouts.

Moghraby's sister Rashida said her family would "accept nothing less than her actual remains, not the unknown remains the enemy [‘Israel'] sends."
"Our sister Dalal has the human right to a decent and dignified burial after three decades of captivity and martyrdom," Rashida said. "We will work on returning Dalal Moghraby's corpse so that she is buried according to Islamic practices beside her parents," Rashida added.
Last Thursday, Nasrallah said that the resistance movement did not believe it was fully "qualified" to probe the fate of Yahya Skaff.

"This is a case of the life or death of a human being, not a simple matter. It is a question with spiritual, religious and legal dimensions - decisions that we in the Islamic Resistance do not consider ourselves qualified to make," he said.
However, the issue of Skaff's fate has attracted the attention of at least one government official. Former Prime Minister Omar Karami met with the Skaff family on Saturday.