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Regev and Goldwasser to receive military funerals Thursday
By Haaretz Staff and News Agencies
Tags: Samir Kuntar, Eldad Regev 

The two Israeli soldiers abducted in 2006 by Hezbollah and whose bodies were returned Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap will receive military funerals Thursday in their respective hometowns.

Coffins containing the remains of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were delivered to an army base in northern Israel on Wednesday evening, where their families were waiting to hold a private ceremony.

The coffins, draped in Israeli flags, were driven a short distance from the Rosh Hanikra crossing on the Israel-Lebanon border to the Shraga army base. The two reservists were abducted by Hezbollah in July 2006 cross-border raid that sparked the month-long Second Lebanon War.
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Within the framework of the exchange, Israel released five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, who has been imprisoned in Israel since 1979. He was convicted of one of the grisliest attacks in Israeli history - killing a man in front of his four-year-old daughter, and then killing the girl herself by crushing her skull. The girl's two-year-old sister was accidentally smothered by her mother, who kept her hand over the toddler's mouth to stifle her cries as they hid from Kuntar and his accomplices.

Kuntar and the four Hezbollah men received a hero's welcome in Lebanon on Wednesday evening. A short time earlier, the five were driven to the buffer zone between the warring nations, where they crossed by foot into Lebanon proper. They were welcomed at Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, President Michel Suleiman and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

In the two years and four days since the capture of the IDF reservists, Hezbollah had given no word on the condition of Goldwasser and Regev, nor did they allow Red Cross representatives to see them. The two bodies were formally identified by Israel a few hours after they were handed over, and the soldiers officially pronounced dead by the IDF chief rabbi and the head of the medical corps.

The army said that military funerals for the two would take place Thursday. Goldwasser will be laid to rest at 10 A.M. in the military cemetery in Nahariya and Regev will be buried at 2 P.M. in Haifa. By Jewish tradition, funerals are usually held the same day, but the burials were delayed in order to allow Israelis to pay their respects to the fallen soldiers.

The swap

The five Lebanese prisoners had been taken before dawn of Wednesday to the Liman military base near the border, where they waited until the identification process of the two Israelis had been completed. Israel also received the remains of IDF troops who fell in the 2006 war.

The swap, overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the cabinet, began at around 9 A.M. Wednesday at the Rosh Hanikra crossing, under the auspices of the International Red Cross Committee.

A convoy carrying the bodies of the two soldiers reached the Rosh Hanikra crossing on the Lebanese side of the border at about 8:30 A.M., where they were transferred to Red Cross officials, beginning the first stage of the swap.

Five hours after the bodies were handed over, an Israeli forensics team positively identified them as those of Regev and Goldwasser. Meanwhile, Israel began transferring to Lebanon the bodies of Palestinian and Lebanese fighters who had been buried in Israel.


Hezbollah men carrying coffins containing the two IDF soldiers. (AP)


About 40 minutes after the exchange was begun, the two coffins were taken to the Lebanon border crossing and put on display. Shortly after 11 A.M., Red Cross vehicles transported the bodies into Israel, where an Israeli team began its identification process.

'Bodies were in very poor condition'

After receiving the bodies, an Israeli forensics expert said that they were in very poor condition, having not been preserved, and surmised that identification could take a long time.

A Hezbollah security official said DNA tests conducted by the ICRC had verified the identity of the soldiers. The ICRC later denied this claim, saying the group had carried out no such process.

The families of the two soldiers had clung to the hope that they were still alive, despite the assumption by Israeli officials that they did not survive the abduction.

A Lebanese newspaper affiliated to Hezbollah reported Tuesday that one of the two had been killed in the attack, but did not specify which, or give details of the condition of the second soldier.

By early afternoon, Israel had returned to Lebanon the bodies of eight Hezbollah fighters killed in the 2006 war and of four Palestinian militants, including Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian woman involved in a 1978 bus attack that killed 35 Israelis.

Earlier this week, soldiers from the Engineering Corps and the IDF Rabbinate exhumed the corpses from the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants. The bodies were to be held in cold storage until the soldiers' remains were identified, upon which they were to be transported in a 50-truck convoy to Lebanon.

Related articles:
  • 'We want to remember our son as he was, not as a body'
  • In Lebanon, red carpet laid out for convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar
  • IN PICTURES / How the abduction was carried out
  • ANALYSIS / In Lebanon, prisoner swap is Hezbollah victory
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      1.   Another Sign of Chaos 04:26  |  David Perlman 16/07/08
      2.   prisoner swap 05:09  |  sam 16/07/08
      3.   USA aide to Israel must be halted. 05:54  |  Fred McCann 16/07/08
      4.   Peace is getting to Israel 06:30  |  Deborah 16/07/08
      5.   Fred McCann, AKA Mr. Waco Texas 06:31  |  Neil Golan 16/07/08
      6.   Government double-talk is out of place here 06:31  |  J. Frank Mortimer 16/07/08
      7.   To # 3, yes, you are correct about the capitulation 06:36  |  Iron Fist 16/07/08
      8.   Victory 06:36  |  Roger 16/07/08
      9.   Our soliders dead have more humanity than Kuntar live 06:38  |  Ilan 16/07/08
      10.   Fred McCann 06:56  |  Connie 16/07/08
      11.   Livni said `Changes are taking place`...... 07:20  |  Dolly 16/07/08
      12.   Deleted by moderator 07:47  |  Hans 16/07/08
      13.   Use your brains, not only the emotions. 07:52  |  Jean Van Daem 16/07/08
      14.   What will it matter? 07:52  |  Dror 16/07/08
      15.   To # 3 07:55  |  Hans 16/07/08
      16.   Rodef Shalom and juctice 08:10  |  Daniel 16/07/08
      17.   Remember Entebbe? 08:12  |  steve dill 16/07/08
      18.   Sympathies to Israel 08:13  |  Sympathy 16/07/08
      19.   DON`T DO IT !!! 08:16  |  steve dill 16/07/08
      20.   You look good celebrating the murdere of a 31/2 year old girl 08:19  |  Dan 16/07/08
      21.   A SAD DAY FOR ISRAEL, BUT 08:20  |  Commonsense 16/07/08
      22.   The leaders of Israel have lost the ability 08:32  |  Zev 16/07/08
      23.   Ya Hold Off On That Last Joke... 08:42  |  Yosemite 16/07/08
      24.   Disgusting!!! 08:55  |  Daniel 16/07/08
      25.   Deleted by moderator 09:17  |  Natallie Durson 16/07/08
      26.   "Captives", not "hostages" 09:35  |  Clickfool 16/07/08
      27.   Soldiers transferred to Red Cross in what condition. 09:46  |  Terry 16/07/08
      28.   Deleted by moderator 09:48  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 16/07/08
      29.   WITH TRUE SADNESS ! TWO HOME WILL HAVE BROKEN LIGHT 09:49  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 16/07/08
      30.   If they weren`t dead when captured... 09:50  |  Less Safe in Israel 16/07/08
      31.   God bless the IDF 09:54  |  Dave 16/07/08
      32.   Deleted by moderator 09:55  |  ATİLLA KARAGÖZOĞLU 16/07/08
      33.   Pack your bags 09:58  |  Josh B 500 Internal Server Error

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      34.   Deleted by moderator 09:58  |  Terry 16/07/08
      35.