Israel, May 11 -- It has been 43 years since a soldier went missing. On Sunday, May 11, the Israeli army said that the missing soldier's body was found in the "heart of Syria" and repatriated in a special operation with the Mossad intelligence agency.

"In a special operation led by the IDF (military) and Mossad, the body of Sgt. First Class Tzvika Feldman was found in the heart of Syria and brought back to Israel," the army said in a statement, reported AFP.

Feldman went missing along with two other soldiers in the 1982 battle of Sultan Yacoub that pitted Israeli and Syrian forces against each other in the Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon, near the border with Syria.

In a separate statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pra...