Reuters
Friday, January 12, 2007
Two Israeli soldiers who were captured by Lebanese Hezbollah
guerrillas in a cross-border raid in July, triggering 34 days
of war, are alive, former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel was
quoted as saying on Friday.
Israel's Maariv newspaper quoted Gemayel and a second Lebanese
politician in interviews as saying the two soldiers were alive
but they offered no other details. They said they hoped the soldiers
would return home in good health.
The comments appeared to run counter to an internal Israeli probe
which concluded that the two soldiers -- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad
Regev -- were seriously wounded during their capture and at least
one of them could now be dead.
Around 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly
soldiers, were killed in the war, which started when Hezbollah
captured the two Israeli soldiers in the July 12 cross-border
raid.
The war ended with a truce on August 14.
Hezbollah has ignored a U.N. call for the immediate release of
the soldiers and said Israel must first free Lebanese prisoners
and possibly others held in its jails.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that there would
be no trade on Hezbollah's terms if it did not prove Goldwasser
and Regev were still alive.
Gemayel spoke to Israel's Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth newspapers
on the sidelines of a conference in Madrid on stalled Middle East
peacemaking.
Gemayel told Yedioth that he hoped a peace deal between Israel
and Lebanon would be possible in the future.
"Peace with Israel? I wish. I hope. But this is not the
time from our point of view or from your point of view,"
he said.
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