German Mediator Assumes Israeli Soldiers Held By Hizbullah Are Dead
Beirut, 31 May 08, The German mediator negotiating a prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah assumes the two Israeli soldiers seized by the Shiite group in 2006 are no longer alive, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported.
Gerhard Konrad has told the Israeli government that he believed Hizbullah was not holding any live soldiers, only dead bodies, the newspaper said Friday.
Hizbullah kidnapped Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on July 12, 2006 in a deadly cross-border raid, igniting a 34-day Israeli offensive on Lebanon.
Israel’s army radio said on Monday that the Jewish state is prepared to free five Lebanese prisoners and return the bodies of 10 Hizbullah fighters in exchange for the release of its two captured soldiers.
Samir Kantar, the dean of Lebanese prisoners, is among those who could be exchanged, according to the army radio.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also raised the issue on Monday on the occasion of Liberation Day.
“Very soon, Samir Kantar and his brothers will be among us,” he said.
Kantar, 45, was sentenced to 542 years in prison in 1980 for killing an Israeli man and his four-year-old daughter in an attack in the Israeli resort of Nahariya.
A Lebanese official close to the negotiations on an exchange said earlier that another prisoner, Nessim Nisr, was expected to be released soon.
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