JERUSALEM: The Israeli Cabinet gave its green light yesterday for a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, even though two soldiers captured by the Lebanese group two years ago are known to be dead.
The agreement was approved by 22 votes to three at a meeting of the Israeli Cabinet.
Israel is seeking the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser or their remains. The two were captured by Hezbollah fighters in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, 2006 that sparked a devastating 34-day war in Lebanon.
Regev and Goldwasser are believed to have been badly wounded during their capture and Hezbollah never provided any evidence they were alive.
An official Israeli statement said that in the exchange, Israel would release five Lebanese fighters and at a later stage an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners. Dozens of bodies of slain infiltrators and the remains of eight Hezbollah fighters killed in the 2006 war would also be handed over.
Topping the list of those to be released by Israel is Samir Kantar, who is serving a life sentence for a 1979 raid on the northern Israeli coastal town of Nahariya.
At the start of the session, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on ministers to approve the proposed prisoner exchange even though the two soldiers were dead. “Our initial theory was that the soldiers were alive... Now we know with certainty there is no chance that that is the case.”
“We have no illusions: there will be much sadness in Israel, much humiliation considering the celebrations that will be held on the other side,” he said in reference to neighboring Lebanon.
In Beirut, Hezbollah said the Israeli approval of the deal reflected the group’s strength. “What happened in the prisoners issue is a proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,” the group’s Al-Manar TV quoted Hezbollah’s Executive Council chief Hashem Safieddine as saying.
In the southern city of Sidon, members of the Popular Democratic Party were decorating the central Martyrs Square with pictures of Kantar and hanging banners such as “Freedom to the hero, prisoner Samir Kantar,” “the chain must break,” and “freedom comes with blood not tears.”
Ministers said it could take 10 days to two weeks for the prisoner swap to be carried out.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier came out in favor of the deal. “As a soldier, I consider we have a supreme responsibility to bring back our sons, dead or alive,” he said.
