After hours of deliberation the Cabinet voted to go ahead with the prisoner deal with Hizbullah, with 22 ministers voting for the decision and three ministers opposing the exchange. During the meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert informed the cabinet ministers that the two IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser are no longer alive, and were killed either during the kidnapping or shortly after.
After the cabinet meeting Minister Eli Yishai told reporters the price to be paid for the return of the two reservists, is much lower than previous deals with Hizbullah.
During the cabinet meeting, Olmert expressed disappointment over the fact that Israel has received no information regarding IAF navigator Ron Arad's fate and that the deal failed to supply Israel with any new information of his fate.
After waiting for hours outside the Prime Minister's office for a final verdict from the cabinet, the families of the two IDF reservists met with Olmert. Micki Goldwasser expressed outrage over the Prime Minister's announcement claiming her son and Eldad are no longer alive and demanded that the International Red Cross supply the families with solid proof to support the claim.
In order to receive the two reservists, Israel will set free terrorist and murderer Samir Kuntar as well as an unspecified number of Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of Hizbullah fighters. Reports stemming from Hizbullah on Sunday suggested that the deal will be carried out no later then July 12, marking exactly two years since the soldiers' were abducted.
On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar led a group of four terrorists who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The four belonged to the Palestinian Liberation Front and around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya. The four murdered a policeman who came across them. The group then entered a high building, in Jabotinsky Street, where they parted into two groups. One group broke into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. The terrorists took 28 year old Danny Haran hostage along with his four-year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two-year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor. The terorrists murdered Danny and his daughter near the beachfront. Smadar accidentally smothered Yael to death when she covered her mouth to prevent her daughter from crying when the terrorists were searching the couple's home.
Kuntar was subsequently sentenced to four life sentences and has been incarcerated in Israel ever since..
The last time the cabinet dealt with a prisoner swap was in November 2003, when it approved by a vote of 12 to 11 a deal that included the release of Elhanan Tannenbaum and the remains of St.-Sgts. Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Sawayid in exchange for some 400 Palestinian security prisoners without "blood on their hands" and several dozen prisoners from Lebanon and other Arab countries. 06/29/08
Margot Dudkevitch
Infolive.tv
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