For almost two decades, Iranian immigrants to Israel have been trying to find out what happened to three Jews who disappeared while trying to leave Iran for Israel. Now, Mossad has concluded that they were murdered — and informed the families so that they can conduct mourning rites.

The three, Nourollah Rabi-Zade, Syrous Ghahremani and Ibrahim Ghahremani, attempted to emigrate in 1997, and were due to meet Israeli agents at Iran’s border with Pakistan. Not only did they not arrive, but they were never heard of again.

The Iranian community in Israel is handling the news very privately, and requests by the JC for comment were declined, with members feeling that the issue was too sensitive for them to discuss.

Mossad’s conclusion comes a year after a similar mystery was solved, regarding eight Iranian Jews who vanished while trying to emigrate in 1994. It was decided that they were killed.

In both cases, intelligence chiefs have confirmed the deaths without saying who killed them and where.

The families of the three just declared dead, and the eight confirmed dead last year, desperately want the corpses returned, and several hold out hope that this could happen as part of a prisoner exchange with one of the terrorist organisations that Iran backs. There are no reports of progress in this respect, however.