Yedioth Ahronoth reports Wednesday Hizbullah had offered to release information on kidnapped soldiers' fate in exchange for release of Samir Kuntar, other prisoners; Israel declined. IDF report on abduction states soldiers were severely injured during kidnapping
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
recently issued a public statement saying that Israel will not pay an "excessive price" for information on the fate of kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
PM Speaks
Olmert: Working premise is troops are alive / Tova Dadon
Prime minister claims he was misunderstood when he said Monday war was stopped because 'we didn’t know if soldiers are alive.' According to him, statement referred to information Israel had at start of fighting
According to a Yedioth Ahronoth report Wednesday, Olmert's statement relates to an IDF report that was compiled following the kidnapping, and which revealed that the soldiers were seriously injured in the course of battle, and were apparently in need of urgent medical attention.
The PM's associates disclosed Tuesday that at some point of the negotiations with Hizbullah,
the Lebanese group offered to divulge information on the captives' fate in exchange for the release of Samir Kuntar, who murdered Danny Haran and his four year-old daughter in 1979, and several other prisoners "with blood on their hands."
Israel
promptly declined the proposal, which failed to include an agreement to free the Israeli captives.
During the war in Lebanon this summer, the army had prepared a report about the kidnapping on Israel's border. Sources said that according to the report, Regev and Goldwasser were severely wounded in the course of the kidnapping, and were in a state that warranted immediate medical attention.
'Don’t negotiate over bodies'
The report's findings were brought to the attention of the captives' family. Shlomo Goldwasser, Ehud's father, told the PM that if it turns out that the sons had been killed, there was no point in negotiating over the return of their bodies.
"Israel should not pay for receiving the bodies," Goldwasser said. "If the sons aren't alive, there shouldn't be any deal at all."
Despite the difficult report, Israel continues talks with Hizbullah based on the working premise that the captives are still alive.
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