Israel swaps five prisoners for soldiers' remains

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert hugs Karnit Goldwasser, wife of Ehud Goldwasser next to his coffin.
Photograph: Reuters

MIDDLE EAST: FIVE LEBANESE prisoners returned to native soil amid fanfare last night, having been released in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers seized by Hizbullah in an ambush that sparked the July 2006 war.

The mood in Israel earlier in the day had been sombre as the nation waited to learn whether the two soldiers were alive or dead. The Jerusalem Post dubbed the Lebanese festivities "a celebration of evil".

In the late morning, Hizbullah officials unloaded two plain black coffins from a vehicle at the Naqoura crossing, laying to rest any last Israeli hopes that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were alive. After DNA tests confirmed their identities, the army formally informed the two men's families.

Only then, in the early evening, did Israel's longest-serving Arab prisoner Samir Qantar and four Hizbullah prisoners cross into the Lebanese border town of Naqoura on a red carpet. They were hailed by patriotic anthems in the main square, which was draped with Hizbullah's yellow banners.

"As we said in 2006, the time for defeats has passed, the time of victories has come," Hizbullah leader Sayyed Nasrallah told a crowd of thousands gathered in the southern suburbs of Beirut, waving yellow flags. It was an unexpected live appearance by a man Israel vowed to kill during the war.

"This country, which gave a clear picture to the world today, could never be defeated," Mr Nasrallah said, after exchanging rapturous hugs and kisses with the former detainees gathered on stage dressed in military fatigues.

Samir Qantar is a hero to many Lebanese but a notorious murderer to Israelis. He was jailed in 1979 after taking part in a deadly commando raid in northern Israel with a Palestinian group. Three people, including a four-year-old girl, were killed.

The other four prisoners are Hizbullah fighters Maher Qorani, Mohammad Srour, Hussein Suleiman and Khodr Zeidan, whom Israel seized in the 2006 war.

Hizbullah cited the need for a bargaining chip to secure their release as the reason for the cross-border raid of July 12th, 2006.

Under the German-mediated swap, Israel also handed over the bodies of 199 Arab, Palestinian and Lebanese fighters who had infiltrated the Jewish state over the years. Most prominent among them was Dalal Al-Moghrabi, a Palestinian woman who led a deadly bus hijacking in 1978.

Although seen as a victory for Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hizbullah, Lebanon declared the day a national holiday and seized upon it as a symbol of new-found unity.

"Your release is a new victory and the future is with you. It can only be a brightly lit path that achieves the sovereignty of the land," President Michel Suleiman told the five men at Beirut airport.

In a sight that would have been inconceivable just a few weeks earlier, politicians from both sides greeted them on the runway.

An 18-month political crisis that split Lebanon into western-backed and Hizbullah-allied factions exploded in violence in May.

A deal hatched in Qatar led to Mr Suleiman's election after a six-month vacuum. Last week a national unity government - representing another Hizbullah victory by giving its allies a veto-wielding third of seats - was appointed.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times