Is the mystery disappearance of Lebanese ex-security officer tied to Ron Arad’s fate?

Lebanese authorities are scrambling over the disappearance of a retired security officer in recent days, with the case potentially linked to the decades-long mystery over the fate of Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad.

According to Arab and French media, former Lebanese General Security Captain Ahmed Shukr disappeared a week ago, with conflicting reports about his fate. Lebanese authorities suspect that two Mossad operatives with Swedish passports, who arrived in Lebanon two days before his disappearance, and that one left through the Beirut airport the day Shukr disappeared, kidnapped Shukr.

The Initial investigation indicates that Shukr was "lured from his hometown of Nabi Chit in Eastern Lebanon's Beqaa Valley to a location near the city of Zahle, where he disappeared." Investigators are looking into the possibility that Shukr was killed by the agents or transferred to Israel, as no trace of him has been found in Lebanon, raising speculation that Shukr was likely drugged and taken to Israel either via air extraction or by sea.

Shukr is the brother of Hassan Shukr, a Hezbollah operative who was a fighter in the group that participated in capturing Ron Arad after his plane was shot down over Sidon on October 16, 1986. While Israeli forces were able to recover the pilot at the time, they failed to locate Arad, who was the navigator.

Arad was captured by the Amal Movement, and then believed to have been taken to the home of the Shukr family, before being moved to an unknown location, and traces of him were lost. Hassan Shukr was killed in an Israeli operation deep inside Lebanon in 1988. 

The task of bringing Arad home remains one of Israel's biggest failures, despite decades of attempts to obtain information about him and his fate. Five years ago, reports were allowed to be published in Israel that Arad was killed while trying to escape from his detention facility in the village of Nabi Chit in 1998. At the time, Hezbollah operatives dug up graves at the site and sent to Israel the remains of one of the bodies that were exhumed. DNA testing denied that they were Arad's remains. 

While there has been no official confirmation from Israel over any possible involvement in Shukr's recent disappearance, this unusual incident reopens one of Israel's most painful wounds, with hopes that THIS TIME might help the Arad family reach some much-awaited closure.