Hezbollah delivers remains of two Israeli soldiers

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-16 15:34

The deal also calls for Israel to release scores of Palestinian prisoners at a later date as a gesture to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Hezbollah has dubbed the exchange "Operation Radwan," in honor of "Hajj Radwan," or Imad Moughniyah, the group's military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February.

Yellow Hezbollah flags lined the streets in towns and villages across south Lebanon, as well as along the coastal highway from the border village of Naqoura to Beirut.

Celebratory banners fluttered in the south and in Beirut's southern suburbs, both Hezbollah strongholds. "Liberation of the captives: a new dawn for Lebanon and Palestine," one read.

LEBANESE PRISONERS

Israeli television showed footage of the five Lebanese, their hands and feet manacled and wearing grey tracksuits, being processed by prison service officials. All looked solemn. Qantar was shown giving his name and answering questions in Hebrew.

Israeli President Shimon Peres set the prisoner swap in motion on Tuesday by pardoning Qantar, reviled in Israel for his role in the 1979 attack. Qantar, aged 17 at the time, has said the father was shot by Israeli soldiers who also wounded him, and that he doesn't remember what happened to the girl.

Peres said he felt "bitter and unbearable pain" at the decision and that it "in no way constitutes forgiveness," but that Israel was obliged to get its soldiers back.

Israel's cabinet voted 22-3 for the deal on Tuesday. Some ministers objected to trading prisoners for soldiers' bodies.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had described Qantar as the last bargaining chip for word on Israeli airman Ron Arad, who disappeared after bailing out while bombing Lebanon in 1986.

Israel said a report supplied by Hezbollah on Arad as part of the prisoner deal had failed to shed new light on his fate.

Hezbollah has made Qantar's freedom a central demand. Many in Lebanon believe Israel's refusal to free Qantar earlier prompted Hezbollah's cross-border raid in 2006 that led to a war that killed some 1,200 Lebanese and 159 Israelis.

The other Lebanese prisoners being released were identified as Maher Qorani, Mohammad Srour, Hussein Suleiman and Khodr Zeidan. They were to receive a heroes' welcome of fireworks and rallies in Lebanon, which declared a public holiday.

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