"MKs and reporters openly wiped away tears yesterday during a Knesset committee meeting discussing the secret burial of the body parts of naval commandos Third Petty Officer Guy Golan and 3PO Raz Tabi, who were killed in Lebanon in September 1997".

"The Knesset State Control Committee, chaired by MK Yossi Katz (Labor), met following the discovery that the families of the two soldiers had not been informed that their sons had not been buried whole. The body parts were later interred on top of the coffins without the parents' knowledge and without DNA testing".

"Yoram Golan, Guy's father, said his suspicions had first been raised when, instead of receiving his son's watch after his death, as is the custom in the commandos, he was handed a new watch in a box.

He said the fears increased when the body of 3PO Itamar Ilya, who was killed in the same operation, was returned a few months ago amid reports that there was another small coffin in the plane".

"He finally discovered the truth while surfing the Internet when he came across a site describing what had been returned: "Five legs, so many fingers and bits of skin," Golan recalled. "And they never told us." He also described the interment of the body parts of his son as "a donkey's burial."

Maj.-Gen. Yehuda Segev, head of the IDF** Manpower Division, said, "My stomach turns over and my heart bleeds in the face of this terrible story"….

Katz admitted he had cried as the fathers spoke.

"State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg said he would like to see the results of the internal inquiry into the affair and hear the IDF's conclusions before acting".

"MKs Nissan Slomiansky (National Religious Party) and Ra'anan Cohen (Labor) demanded an independent external inquiry. The parents' lawyer Eliad Shraga said Justice Minister Tzahi Hanegbi had promised to work toward establishing a committee of inquiry into the parents' complaints".