Comments (0)IDF Identifies, Collects Body Parts of Copter Victims
July 29, 2010JTA Wire Service
An elite Israel Defense Forces unit identified and collected body parts of the seven military personnel killed in the crash of an Israeli military helicopter in central Romania.
The search-and-rescue unit on Wednesday also collected pieces of the crashed helicopter, which will aid the investigation into the cause of Monday’s accident.
Six Israeli soldiers and a Romanian liaison officer died in the accident. A Romanian official said Tuesday that all seven bodies had been located.
The IDF and the Romanian army plan to hold a memorial ceremony Thursday afternoon at the nearby military base from where the doomed helicopter took off.
Wednesday’s landing was the first at the crash site, high in the Carpathian Mountains, which until now had been inaccessible to search teams.
Israeli Air Force investigators suspect that human error stemming from poor visibility caused the fatal crash of the CH-53 helicopter during a joint military exercise between the Israeli and Romanian militaries. All possibilities are being investigated, the Air Force said, including the chance that the helicopter experienced a technical problem that led to the crash.
The helicopter’s black box was discovered at the site at approximately midnight Tuesday and was transferred for inspection in Israel.
Lieberman: Freeze Extension Has No Bearing on Direct Talks
The foreign minister of Israel rejected any link between extending a West Bank building freeze and direct talks with the Palestininans.
Avigdor Lieberman told a joint news conference Wednesday with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos that Israel has no plans to extend the 10-month freeze after September. Extending the freeze is among the Palestinian Authority’s conditions for moving to direct negotiations with Israel.
Lieberman said there was no room for linkage between such talks and a settlement construction freeze.
“We must start direct talks, but there is no place for a [construction] moratorium after Sept. 25,” he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly will tell the Arab League’s peace process committee on Thursday that the lack of progress in the proximity peace talks with Israel rules out moving to direct talks, a Palestinian official said Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.
“Abbas will tell them that until this moment, there is nothing to convince us to go to direct talks,” the official told Reuters. “There is nothing new.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the construction freeze last November. The Palestinian Authority described it as insufficient, notably because it did not include eastern Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
Water Tests Indicate Baptism Site Safe
Bacteriological tests at a baptism site in the lower Jordan River indicate that the water is safe for the Christian holy rite.
The tests conducted Sunday by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority at the Qasr el Yahud site came after allegations that the water was too polluted to be safe for human bathing.
Israel’s Ministry of Health last week urged the Ministry of Tourism and the Nature and Parks Authority to ban baptism in the lower Jordan River due to the serious health risks from the highly polluted water.
Most of the river’s fresh water is diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan; untreated sewage, agricultural runoff and saline water are returned in its place.
The Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the Health Ministry carry out quarterly routine checks on the water. A test in April also showed that the water met the Health Ministry’s safety standards, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Civil Administration, Tourism Ministry and Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
Jesus is believed to have been baptized in the Jordan River by John, who immersed his followers to symbolize their purity before God. More than 100,000 tourists visit the site near Jericho each year.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.