Prisoner Exchange
On November 9, 2003, the Government of Israel announced that an arrangement had been concluded regarding the return of the three missing IDF soldiers - as well as abducted IDF colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum, who had been captured by Hezbollah after being lured to Dubai for a drug deal.
Hezbollah instigated negotiations over the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, together with a number of Palestinian prisoners. On January 29, 2004, 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, 400 Palestinian prisoners, German national and Hezbollah member Steven Smyrek, and the remains of 59 Lebanese militants and civilians were transferred to Hezbollah, along with maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon, in exchange for Tenenbaum and the remains of the three dead soldiers.
Among the 435 people released by Israel were Mustafa Dirani and Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid. These two individuals were kidnapped, in 1994 and 1989 respectively, for use as bargaining chips in the effort to secure the release of the most famous of the Israeli MIAs, Ron Arad. Fearing the release of these men would end any hope of finding Arad, his family attempted to take legal action to prevent their release. Nothing came of this effort.
The bodies were positively identified and arrived during the evening hours in Israel. The soldiers were returned in an IAF aircraft along with an IDF delegation headed by Chief Military Rabbi, Brg. Gen. Israel Weiss. Upon the arrival of the coffins, a military ceremony took place in the presence of their families and commanders. The ceremony was attended by President Moshe Katsav, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon.
Read more about this topic: 2000 Hezbollah Cross-border Raid
Famous quotes containing the words prisoner and/or exchange:
“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
—Bible: New Testament, Ephesians 4:1-3.
“I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.”
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