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Nissim Nasser, after his release
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| By Israel Insider staff June 1, 2008 |
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Hezbollah said that it had delivered the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War to the International Committee of the Red Cross for delivery to Israel. Hezbollah security official Wafik Safa announced the delivery of the soldiers' remains at Naqoura upon the arrival of Nissim Nasser, an Israeli citizen imprisoned for spying for the Lebanese terror group, who was released from jail by Israel on Sunday morning.
"We today are handing over some of the remains of a number of Israeli soldiers who were killed in the July war and who the Israeli army left in Lebanon," Safa said. The bodies, held inside a container, were placed in an ICRC vehicle. Red Cross sources confirmed that its representatives had received such a container. Helge Kvam, a Red Cross spokesman in Jerusalem, called Hezbollah's move a surprise.
The container was transferred to IDF forces at the Rosh Hanikra crossing and taken to the Abu Kabir Institute for forensic analysis.
The delivery may prove embarrassing to Israel. The Israeli government and the IDF have officially claimed that no remains of Israeli soldiers were left in Lebanon, and all soldiers killed in action were retrieved whole. Parents of fallen soldiers were officially told as much.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called the transfer a unilateral move by Hezbollah, and said it had nothing to do with Nasser's release from detention or to any other kind of deal.
Nasser confessed to espionage, telling Israeli officials that he decided to spy for Hezbollah because he saw himself as a "Lebanese patriot and a Muslim."
Nasser, 41, was born to a Jewish woman who converted to Islam. In 1991, he immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return, reportedly to improve his quality of life. He signed a plea bargain and was sentenced in 2002 to six years in prison for spying for Hezbollah. He finished serving his sentence early this year, but he was subsequently held in administrative detention, apparently to be used as a bargaining chip in a deal for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Security authorities and the Prime Minister's office said that the decision to continue to hold Nasser indefinitely as a bargaining chip would not stand up to Supreme Court scrutiny. |
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