Israeli government accepts prisoner exchange with Hezbollah

             

The bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the 2006 Lebanon war with Hezbollah are expected to be returned to their home soil, after the Israeli government approved a controversial prisoner-swap deal with the Lebanese militant group. Prime minister Ehud Olmert said for the first time that there was "no chance" that the soldiers, Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, were still alive.

Under the terms of the deal, Israel must in turn release the Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, whose raid on northern Israel nearly 30 years ago wiped out almost an entire family. "Even people with the utmost responsibility, like me, have the right and duty to have doubts, as this decision deals with the repercussions on our lives in the coming years," Olmert said.

"We know what happened to them. As far as we know, the soldiers Regev and Goldwasser are not alive," the prime minister said. No proof of life has ever been received and evidence at the scene suggested at least one, if not both, succumbed to serious injuries not long after the kidnapping. But the soldiers' families, who have fought non-stop for their release, have clung to the hope that they might still be alive, based on Hezbollah's initial claims that they captured two live soldiers. "There have been assessments for a long time. ... but none of this matters because it is not fact," said Shlomo Goldwasser, Udi's father. "They were alive when they were kidnapped and no one has provided us with evidence to the contrary."

Shlomo Goldwasser's daughter-in-law, Karnit, who campaigned tirelessly to win her husband Udi's release, said after a meeting with Olmert: "My heart aches; it's very hard for me. I'm very tired and drained inside. … I need at least two days of quiet to sit by myself and try to understand what's going to happen, how it will all turn out," she told reporters.