Herzog marks 40 years since IAF navigator Ron Arad was taken captive in Lebanon

(Oct. 18, 2026 / JNS)

Israeli President Isaac Herzog commemorated on Saturday evening the capture of Israeli Air Force navigator Lt. Col. Ron Arad by Lebanese terrorists, a day after Friday’s 40th anniversary of the incident.

“I remember clearly the day Ron was captured,” Herzog wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X.

“I was serving in the active reserves at the time, and the news that his aircraft had gone down and that he was missing shook us all,” he recounted.

“Ron’s photograph stands above my head in my office at the President’s Residence [in Jerusalem] at all times, a daily reminder of our moral and national commitment to bring him home. My heart and thoughts are with Tami, Yuval, and the entire family,” the president continued, referring to Arad’s spouse and daughter.

“Even after forty years, the State of Israel remains committed to doing everything possible to determine what happened to him and bring him home. We must never forget Ron,” Herzog added.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Friday tweeted, “Time has not erased his memory, nor weakened our commitment. Ron Arad has not been forgotten. We will never stop fighting to bring him home.”

Arad has been classified as missing in action ‎since October 1986, when his plane went down over Lebanon. He ejected from his F-4 Phantom II interceptor/fighter-bomber and was ‎captured by the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist group Amal. The captured navigator was later handed over to Hezbollah, and ‎later, perhaps to Iran.

His pilot, Yishai Aviram, also ejected from the aircraft. A few hours later, Aviram was located by an Israeli Bell AH-1E Cobra helicopter, and escaped by clinging to one of its landing skids as it flew away under heavy enemy fire.

Raid deep into Lebanese territory

In March, Israeli special forces operated in deep Lebanese territory overnight in an attempt to locate findings related to Arad, the Israel Defense Forces revealed at the time.

No findings related to him were located at the search site, the army said, adding that no troops were injured during the raid.

“The IDF will continue to operate relentlessly, day and night, out of a deep commitment to bringing all of Israel’s sons, the fallen and the missing, back home to the State of Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.

Following the reports, Tami Arad called on the government on behalf of their family not to risk the lives of soldiers for the sake of their husband and father.

“Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it involves risking the lives of IDF soldiers. In our view, the sanctity of life comes before the obligation to return a soldier’s remains for burial. This has been our worldview as well regarding our loved one who disappeared about 40 years ago,” she wrote on Facebook.