Israel Buries Remains of Soldiers
Israel Thursday buried two soldiers whose remains were returned in an exchange with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah the day before.
Friends and relatives in the coastal city of Nahariya looked on as soldiers lowered the wooden coffin of Sgt. Maj. Ehud Goldwasser into the ground.
And in Haifa, thousands of mourners attended the funeral at the military cemetery for 1st Sgt. Eldad Regev.
Goldwasser and Regev were captured after Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on a raid in July 2006.
Goldwasser had been a first sergeant and Regev had been a sergeant first class when they were seized. They were “posthumously promoted” after their remains were identified following the exchange with Hezbollah.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006, during which Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the soldiers.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah returned the remains of Goldwasser and Regev in exchange for Israel freeing five Lebanese militants and the remains of 199 Lebanese fighters.
The five militants included Samir Kuntar, who was convicted of killing an Israeli police officer, shooting dead a 28-year-old man and killing his 4-year-old daughter by bludgeoning her in the head in 1979.
Kuntar — who was jailed for 542 years at the age of 16 — is reviled in Israel but received a hero’s welcome in Lebanon on Wednesday.
Once in Beirut Wednesday, Kuntar — the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel — told a crowd of thousands he would continue to fight for the liberation of the Palestinian territories.
“I return today from Palestine, but believe me, I return to Lebanon only in order to return to Palestine,” Kuntar said.
The other four militants whom Israel freed were fighters seized during its 2006 war in Lebanon. Israel also returned the remains of 199 Lebanese fighters who have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces throughout the years.
Source: CNN.
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