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Lebanese prisoner of war Hassan Naeem Akel (middle) after he was released on Monday night (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff October 16, 2007 |
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Israel and Hezbollah carried out a prisoner swap on Monday night, in what Israel hopes is the preliminary stage to securing the release of kidnapped reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose abduction in 2006 sparked the Second Lebanon War.
On Monday night, Hezbollah handed over the body of an Ethiopian immigrant who washed up in Lebanon after drowning in the Mediterranean in 2005 in exchange for a Hezbollah-affiliated prisoner and the bodies of two Hizbullah fighters. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the deal "reasonable and logical," according to the Jerusalem Post.
However Olmert stressed that the release of Goldwasser and Regev was still a ways away.
"Yesterday, we passed a certain stage of the process, but unfortunately, as I said, the process of returning Udi and Eldad in the North and Gilad [Schalit] in the South is lengthy," Olmert said at a conference in Ashdod on aliya and absorption.
The Lebanese daily Al-Akbar reported on Tuesday that as part of the deal, Hezbollah gave Israel documents written in Ron Arad's handwriting that are believed to be from the time he was abducted, Haaretz reported. Arad, an IAF navigator, went missing after his plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.
The prime minister expressed outrage that Hezbollah continues to raise the price for information about the reservists' welfare and whereabouts. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah several months ago demanded the release of numerous prisoners just for an audio recording of the reservists and continues to make similar demands. Israel is refusing to take a piecemeal approach to secure Goldwasser and Regev's release.
"For years, our enemies have been seeking to raise the price to be paid by Israel for scraps of information, abducted civilians and soldiers, or, heaven forbid, remains.
"This is an ugly and cynical trade in feelings, and in the feelings of Israeli society. At times there is no alternative but to pay the painful price," Haaretz quoted Olmert as saying.
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