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<font size=3>Video with Samir Kuntar's brother at this link!<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/20087164497172689.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/20087164497172689.html</a>
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<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/2008716143549351623.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/2008716143549351623.html</a>
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UPDATED ON:<br>
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 <br>
20:52 Mecca time, 17:52 GMT <br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/">News </a>Middle East <br>
Israel returns Lebanese prisoners <br><br>
<br>
<b>Almost 200 coffins containing Lebanese and Palestinian remains were
handed over [AFP]</b> <br><br>
Five Lebanese prisoners have been handed over to the Hezbollah movement
by Israel, as part of a swap for the bodies of two Israeli
soldiers.<br><br>
The freed men arrived to a heroes' welcome at the Naqoura border crossing
on Wednesday, just hours after Israel received coffins containing the
remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, two Israeli army reservists
captured in 2006.<br><br>
The prisoners released were Samir Kuntar, who was jailed for three
murders in Israel in 1979, and four men captured during the 34-day war
sparked by the capture of Goldwasser and Regev. <br><br>
They were the last remaining Lebanese in Israeli custody.<br><br>
Hezbollah also received the bodies of almost 200 people, including the
body of Dalal al-Maghrebi, a female fighter with the Palestinian Fatah
movement.<br><br>
<b>Cheering supporters<br><br>
</b>The prisoners were brought across the border in a convoy of four
International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles before changing in
military fatigues to greet crowds of well-wishers.<br><br>
Kuntar wiped away tears as he stood in front of the cheering crowd.
<br><br>
"We knew that you were waiting for the resistance and it reached
you. You came back free and heroes," Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of
Hezbollah's political bureau, said.<br><br>
The five men then boarded Lebanese army helicopters for a flight to
Beirut, to be received by the country's president, prime minister and
other officials. <br><br>
"Your return is a new victory and the future with you will only be a
shinning march in which we achieve the sovereignty of our land and the
freedom of people," Michel Sleiman, the president, said at the
airport.<br><br>
"I tell Samir and his companions that they have a right to be proud
of their country, their army and their resistance."<br><br>
In south Beirut, tens of thousands of people, many of them waving
Hezbollah's green and yellow flag, waited for the men to arrive at a huge
rally during which Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader, was expected to
speak. <br><br>
Hezbollah named the exchange "Operation Radwan", in honour of
Imad Moughniyah, known as "Hajj Radwan", the group's military
commander who was assassinated in Syria in February.<br><br>
<b>Israelis sombre<br><br>
</b>In contrast to the upbeat mood in Lebanon, the scene across the
border in Israel was sombre. <br><br>
At the family home of reservist Regev, a crowd of about 50 mourners
gathered and his family wept, seeing their son's coffin displayed on
television for the first time.<br><br>
"It was hard to see one coffin being lowered to the ground and
then another one. It was awful to see it. I asked them to turn off the
television because I didn't want to see it," Regev's father Zvi told
public radio.<br><br>
"We always hoped that Eldad and Udi would return home alive and that
we would be able to hug them."<br><br>
Before the exchange there had been speculation that at least one of the
Israeli soldiers had been alive, but Hezbollah TV confirmed that both
were dead.<br><br>
"The Lebanese people sacrificed almost 800 soldiers, its
entire economy," he said. "For what? For the killer of a
three-year-old girl? Is that a hero? For me he is nothing more than
a little bigot."<br><br>
<b>'Difficult decision'<br><br>
</b>Miri Eisin, a former aide to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister,
said Israel found the release of Kuntar an "incredibly difficult
decision".<br><br>
"Today in Israel we are mainly reflecting on the price we pay in our
country to defend our borders," she told Al Jazeera.<br><br>
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rosh Hanikra on the Israeli
side of the border, said that the Israeli cabinet had
"agonised" over the exchange.<br><br>
"[They] voted in favour of it against the advice of the Israeli
intelligence service ... which thinks it will only encourage
kidnappings," he said. "But the bulk of Israeli public opinion
is behind this deal". <br><br>
Robert Fisk, a Middle East expert and journalist with the
<i>Independent</i> newspaper, told Al Jazeera: "It's regarded as
being the final chapter of the 2006 war."<br><br>
"The Israelis certainly lost that war, they did not get their
prisoners back - not until now and they're getting them back dead. So
more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 160 Israelis, most of
them soldiers, all died for absolutely nothing and that's what today's
prisoner exchanges prove."<br><br>
Lebanon has declared a national holiday to celebrate the prisoner
swap.<br><br>
"This is a big day because it's the day we [Lebanon] have the
liberation of four or five heroes," Wassim Manssouri, a professor in
constitutional law at Beirut's Lebanese University, told Al Jazeera from
the capital.<br><br>
<b>Palestinian reaction<br><br>
</b>Celebrations were also under way in Ramallah, in the occupied West
Bank.<br><br>
"The exchange is seen as a victory for Arab resistance," Nour
Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent, in the West Bank, said.<br><br>
Kuntar is a member of Lebanon's Druze population.<br><br>
Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's Druze leader, told Al Jazeera: "My father
was the founder of a Lebanese-Palestinian coalition to fight Israel and
recover the Palestinians' rights. My father would be
happy."<br><br>
"I am happy [too], but we should not forget the Palestinians who are
detained in their own land," he said.<br><br>
The Hezbollah exchange has prompted the public in Arab countries such as
Jordan and Egypt - which have both signed peace deals with Israel - to
question why their governments have not been able to repatriate the
bodies of their soldiers.<br>
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies <br>
Feedback Number of comments : 9 <br>
<br>
<b>Mike Vanderweide<br>
</b>United States 16/07/2008 <br>
Hezbollah has committed a war crime <br>
Hezbollah's leaders should be tried for war crimes for killing uniformed
prisoners. When has it ever been acceptable to kill uniformed military
prisoners? They should be put on trial immediately. <br><br>
<b>Chet Baker<br>
</b>Great Britain (UK) 16/07/2008 <br>
Shame on Arabs for glorifying murder of children <br>
Samir Kuntar smashed a child's head against a rock after murdering the
father in front of him. One would have to go back to the Nazis to find
similar behavior. That Lebanon could declare a national holiday for the
release of such a monster is a national shame for that country. <br><br>
<b>Gern<br>
</b>United States 16/07/2008 <br>
Returned Prisoners <br>
So a child murderer (Kuntar) in Lebanon is considered a hero. Humans as
spiritual beings are typically appalled by this behavior. Lebanese
muslims are not. With all that is going on in the muslim world today I'm
not surprised. <br><br>
<b>ibrahim<br>
</b>Palestinian Territory 16/07/2008 <br>
the d-day <br>
I feel a full satisfaction by this prosiner swap it's the day of victory
for lebanese and all of arab jehad in all the arab and islamic countries
thankxxxxxxxxs for the resistance <br><br>
<b>Raj<br>
</b>Afghanistan 16/07/2008 <br>
Why so hue and cry about two dead bodies of Israel. Hundreds of
palestinians have died and nobody bothers. hundreds are being tortured in
american prisons and no one raises voice. Let Israelis also feel the pain
of death. <br><br>
<b>lara<br>
</b>Lebanon 16/07/2008 <br>
Israel invaded Lebanon 6 times since 1978. In 2006 ISRAEL killed 1300
civilians and destroyed entire villages.If those are not war crimes, then
what are they? Israel threw 100,000 cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of
the war maiming,wounding and killing innocents.‘Israel’s uniformed
soldiers should not die” but death to us.Racism at its
best.Ironically,Israel often repeated that Arabs understand the language
of force it seems that it is the one that only understands the language
of force. <br><br>
<b>Samira<br>
</b>United States 16/07/2008 <br>
Heros? <br>
"...liberation of...heroes". Heroes?Samir Kuntar murdered 3
people, including a 3 1/2 year old girl. In what twisted mind can such a
man be considered a hero? Israel glorifies human life while Hezbollah
leaders glorify plain Israeli suffering. What reason is there to play
with people’s minds and hearts and giving them hope that their sons are
alive? When killing Israelis is the main value of a movement (rather than
coexistence), there's very little hope for resolution to this ongoing
conflict. <br><br>
<b>Pierre Jonvoux<br>
</b>France 16/07/2008 <br>
Israel has been defeated! <br>
It is great that Lebanon is rejoicing as it well should! The Israeli
capitalist war machine has been defeated by a poor people's militia!!
Hurrah to Freedom! As for Mr.Mike's comment about war crimes, it is
consistent with western hypocrisy. He suggests Hezbollah should be
prosecuted for the death of 2 Israeli soldiers, but Israel has nothing to
account for the massacre of 1,000 innocent unarmed civilians! The
hypocrisy of people like Mike is shameful to say the least. <br><br>
<b>mohammed El Haq<br>
</b>Morocco 16/07/2008 <br>
answer to the first comment <br>
It is ironic that an American dares talking about war crimes! Hizballah
has behaved within the accepted standards of war. Why not talking about
the 800 Palestinians kidnapped by the Israelis? Why not talk about the
bombing of civilian areas by the Israeli army? Why not talking anout the
Israeli minister of defense showing and mutilating the corpse of a
Palistinian fighter ( the hero Dalal Al Moghrabi)? <br><br>
<br><br>
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