Captives' families brace for exchange

It has been a long two years for the Regev and Goldwasser families. On Wednesday, all their hard work, all the meetings, phone calls and dreadful uncertainty will culminate in one moment – the moment Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev will be on Israeli soil once more.

"You can't really describe what we're going through. It's very hard. All we can hope for now is some sort of a happy ending," Zvi Regev, Eldad's father, said Tuesday night.

Though well aware that Israel is operating under the assumption that both men are dead, the families still nurture a glimmer of hope. "For two years, much of what has kept us going was the overwhelming show of support for everyone in this country," he added.

"I'm at my wits' end," said Miki Goldwasser, Ehud's mother. "This is the final stretch and our nerves are raw. I don't know if I'll be able to get any sleep tonight. I'll try though. I know I have a very hard day ahead of me tomorrow.

"I'm very anxious," she added. "But I'm trying to stay optimistic."

Eldad and Udi's friends are just as anxious by the anticipated prisoner exchange deal. Gil Mermelstein, one of Eldad Regev's best friends, told Ynet that the one thing keeping his friends going was hope: "We had to hang in there, stage rallies, stand in intersections, hand out stickers… all we had was the hope that he is still alive, that he'll come back in one piece.

The prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hizbullah will have Regev and Goldwasser returned to Israel in exchange for Samir Kuntar, four Lebanese prisoners and about 200 bodies of Hizbullah operatives. The de facto exchange is expected to take place at the Israeli-Lebanon border crossing at Rosh Hanikra, on Wednesday morning.