Background
The captives and missing persons are a complicated issue that has been a cause for concern in Israel for decades. Addressing this issue involves, among other things, collecting information, managing contacts at the international level for achieving arrangements for the return of the captives and the missing persons, and keeping close contact with their families which are in a challenging period of an ongoing crisis. The Prime Minister's Office handles the captives and missing persons, and the Prime Minister is directly responsible for it. The Prime Minister's Office manages its activities regarding the captives and missing persons, also through the Captives and Missing Persons Coordinator (the Coordinator), who acts on behalf of the Prime Minister. The following figure presents some of the captives and missing persons' cases (both soldiers and civilians) for about 40 years since the beginning of the first Lebanon War in 1982.