Hezbollah delivers remains of two Israeli soldiers

LEBANON/ISRAEL BORDER-Hezbollah handed over coffins said to contain the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross at the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday to exchange for Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.Hezbollah's al-Manar TV showed two black coffins being taken from a vehicle after Hezbollah security official Wafik Safa disclosed for the first time that the soldiers were dead.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took charge of the coffins of the soldiers whose capture in 2006 sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.The exchange was hailed as a triumph by the Lebanese guerrilla group and as a painful necessity by many Israelis."We are now handing over the two imprisoned Israeli soldiers, who were captured by the Islamic resistance on July 12, 2006 ... to the International Committee of the Red Cross," Safa said at the border."The Israeli side will now hand over the great Arab mujahid (holy warrior) ... Samir Qantar and his companions to the ICRC."Under a deal mediated by a U.N.-appointed German intelligence officer, Israel was to free Qantar and four other prisoners in return for the two soldiers.Qantar had been serving a life prison term for the deaths of four Israelis, including a four-year-old girl and her father, in a 1979 Palestinian guerrilla group attack on an Israeli town.Israel radio reported earlier that Israel had given the ICRC in Lebanon documents "to facilitate the process of identifying" the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.Israel will also hand over the bodies of 200 Arabs killed trying to infiltrate northern Israel. Hezbollah will return the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon.The deal also calls for Israel to release scores of Palestinian prisoners at a later date as a gesture to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Hezbollah has dubbed the exchange "Operation Radwan," in honor of "Hajj Radwan," or Imad Moughniyah, the group's military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February.Yellow Hezbollah flags lined the streets in towns and villages across south Lebanon, as well as along the coastal highway from the border village of Naqoura to Beirut.Celebratory banners fluttered in the south and in Beirut's southern suburbs, both Hezbollah strongholds. "Liberation of the captives: a new dawn for Lebanon and Palestine," one read.A Lebanese security source said it might take until Thursday to complete the transfer of all the guerrillas' remains."We think, we hope, especially, it is possible to do it in one day. But it's definitely going to be a long day," Jordi Raich, head of the ICRC in Lebanon told Reuters.
LEBANESE PRISONERS
Israeli television showed footage of the five Lebanese, their hands and feet manacled and wearing grey tracksuits, being processed by prison service officials. All looked solemn. Qantar was shown giving his name and answering questions in Hebrew.Israeli President Shimon Peres set the prisoner swap in motion by formally pardoning Qantar, reviled in Israel for his role in that attack. Qantar, who was 17 at the time, has said the father was shot by Israeli soldiers who also wounded him, and that he doesn't remember what happened to the girl.In a statement, Peres said he felt "bitter and unbearable pain" at the decision and that it "in no way constitutes forgiveness ... I neither forget nor forgive," but that Israel was obliged to win the soldiers' release.Israel's cabinet voted 22-3 for the deal on Tuesday. Some ministers objected to trading prisoners for soldiers' bodies.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had described Qantar as the last bargaining chip for word on Israeli airman Ron Arad, who disappeared after bailing out while bombing Lebanon in 1986.Israel said a report supplied by Hezbollah on Arad as part of the prisoner deal had failed to shed new new light on his fate.Hezbollah has made Qantar's freedom a central demand. Many in Lebanon believe Israel's refusal to free Qantar earlier prompted Hezbollah's cross-border raid in 2006 that led to a war that killed some 1,200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis.The other Lebanese prisoners being released were identified as Maher Qorani, Mohammad Srour, Hussein Suleiman and Khodr Zeidan. They were to receive a heroes' welcome of fireworks and rallies in Lebanon, which declared a public holiday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080716/wl_nm/israel_lebanon_prisoners_dc;_ylt=AnJnMwsRxjXpOjiIly7cd4qs0NUE
PS:What a TRAGEDY!!!!!Lebanon declares today a PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!!!To receive these unremorseful assassins!!!!!!
As in the days of Noah....