Region | Palestinian Territories

Hezbollah, Israel prisoner swap begins

Israeli army DNA tests positively identify remains handed over by Hezbollah as the two captured soldiers.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 10:55 July 16, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Hezbollah handed over two black coffins believed to contain the remains of the two soldiers.
  • Image Credit: AP
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Naqoura: The Israeli army has positively identified the remains handed over by Hezbollah as the two Israeli soldiers included in the prisoner exchange, media reports said on Wednesday.

Israel Radio said the army had concluded that the remains belonged to the soldiers after conducting DNA tests.

Israeli generals were on the way to notify the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the report added. An official confirmation will come only after the families are notified.

Earlier, Hezbollah's Al Manar TV reported that the remains had been positively identified.

Hezbollah handed over the remains of two Israeli soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier on Wednesday, in the first offficial confirmation that the soldiers were dead.

Footage from Hezbollah's Al Manar TV showed two black coffins being unloaded from a vehicle at the border, after Safa confirmed that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were dead.

Television footage also showed ICRC trucks moving the remains of eight Hezbollah fighters into Lebanon, as part of the deal. Remains of four Palestinians, including Dalal Mughrabi, a woman guerrilla who led a bloody 1978 raid on Israel were also moved.

The Israeli coffins were moved across the border into Israel to undergo several tests. After confirmed results, Israel will release five Lebanese prisoners.

The Lebanese prisoners are being taken to the Rosh Hanikra border crossing on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Israel will also hand over the remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed in northern Israel.

Regev and Goldwasser were seized in a cross-border raid in 2006.

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