Israel to begin exhuming terrorists' bodies as part of prisoner swap deal
Lebanese daily says prisoner exchange deal between Israel, Hizbullah sealed in Germany Sunday, but officials in Jerusalem say agreement will be signed only after Ron Arad report reviewed; as part of deal for Regev, Goldwasser's return, Israel to begin exhuming bodies of some 200 slain terrorists
Within the framework of the prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hizbullah, soldiers from the IDF's Engineering Corps, under the supervision of the Military Rabbinate, will begin Monday exhuming bodies of some 200 slain terrorists at the cemetery for enemy combatants near Amiad ahead of their expected transfer to Lebanon.
The army has declared the cemetery a closed military zone as representatives of the military rabbinate began preparing to exhume the remains of the Hizbullah men.
Army officials involved in the exhumation process said that after the bodies are cleaned they will be rewrapped and placed in new caskets ahead of their transfer to Lebanon.
"The process (of exhuming the bodies) is a difficult one, both physically and mentally," one official said, "we treat the dead, regardless of who they are, with the utmost respect."
Another official said the process is expected to last several days.
According to Lebanese daily As-Safir, he prisoner exchange deal was signed by Prime Minster Ehud Olmert's specially appointed envoy on MIA affairs, Ofer Dekel and a representative of the Shiite group in Germany on Sunday.
A UN-appointed German mediator has been handling the swap deal under which Israel would recover IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in exchange for releasing five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of eight Hizbullah fighters and 190 slain Arab infiltrators.
The Lebanese prisoners include Samir Kuntar, the most prominent held by Israel. He is serving a life sentence for killing policeman Eliyahu Shahar as well as Danny Haran and his 4-year-old daughter during a 1979 raid on the northern coastal town of Nahariya.
The policeman's family planned to petition Israel's Supreme Court to block Kuntar's release, the policeman's brother, Yoram Shahar, told Israel Radio. In the past, the court has rejected such appeals.
"We are in a country surrounded by foes and should not give in to terror groups," Shahar said.
'Militiamen killed Iranian diplomats'
Under the deal expected to take place this month, Israel would also release an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners. The two Israeli soldiers are believed dead but Hizbullah has refused to give information about their condition.
Dekel is expected to return to Israel later in the day with a report compiled by Hizbullah on the Lebanese organization's efforts to obtain information regarding long-missing airman Ron Arad, whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.
In exchange for the report on Arad, Israel is to provide information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982. Iran claims they were kidnapped by Lebanese militiamen allied with Israel, who delivered them to Israeli troops. Israel has long denied holding them, and Samir Geagea, former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, has said militiamen killed them.
Officials in Jerusalem said the prisoner swap deal will be sealed only after the Arad report is reviewed.
Goldwasser and Regev were captured in a July 2006 border ambush, triggering the Second Lebanon War.
