Hezbollah Hands Over Remains To Israel In Prisoner Swap

ROSH HANIKRA, Israel -- The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah handed over what are believed to be the remains of two captured Israeli soldiers Wednesday -- the first step of a long-awaited prisoner swap between the two sides.

Hezbollah officials handed over two black coffins to Red Cross officials who will carry them over the border to Israel.

If forensics expert determine that the remains are those of Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser and Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev, Israel will turn over to Hezbollah five Lebanese prisoners -- including convicted murder Samir Kuntar, who many Israelis consider the embodiment of evil.

It will also return the remains of 199 Lebanese fighters who Israel says were killed in clashes over the years.

The forensic determination is expected to take several hours.

The Israel Defense Forces said it would not comment on the transfer until it was complete.

"The IDF has yet to complete the process of identifying the soldiers' remains and will therefore make no comments about the process conclusions until those are completed and the families of the soldiers are notified," it said in a statement. Watch as coffins are delivered »

The transfer began shortly before 10 a.m. Israel time (3 a.m. ET) at the Rosh Hanikra crossing in western Galilee, which the army had declared a closed military zone a day earlier.

The swap caps a tireless campaign by the soldiers' families to bring them home. It also ends decades of resistance by the Israeli government, which wanted to use Kuntar as a bargaining chip to obtain information about a missing airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.

The Shiite militia Hezbollah cast the swap as a victory for all Lebanese, with one official calling it "an official admission of defeat."

On Saturday, Hezbollah delivered to Israel its report on the status of the airman, Ron Arad. Despite Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling the report "absolutely unsatisfactory," the Israel Cabinet cheerlessly approved the swap in a 22-to-3 vote on Tuesday.

The day promises to be a somber one for Israel, but Lebanon was planning a boisterous "welcome home" ceremony for Kuntar and the four other prisoners.

It set up a makeshift stage in the southern coastal town of Naqoura, through which the prisoners will be taken during their journey from the border swap to the capital, Beirut.

Yellow Hezbollah flags, as well as Lebanon's green, red and white flags, fluttered in the breeze. Supporters banged drums and sang. Banners lined the highway, proclaiming, "Israel is shedding tears of pain; Lebanon is shedding tears of joy."

A funeral procession for the 199 remains will be conducted Thursday.

The two Israeli soldiers were captured during a cross-border raid in July 2006. Later that year, Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war during which Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the soldiers.

Hezbollah had given no indication the men are alive. Some newspapers in Israel had speculated that one of the soldiers may be alive, but Olmert told his Cabinet last month that his government did not think the men survived.

A day before the transfer, Goldwasser's father, Shlomo, held out hope about his son's fate.

"They were kidnapped alive. (Hezbollah leader) Hassan Nassrallah swears on it the first day that he announced to the world he kidnapped two soldiers alive," the father said. "If tomorrow he brings them in coffins, it means that he killed them -- his words. It means that they killed them, and if he killed them I am waiting for him to be punished."

For its part, Hezbollah is most interested in the release of convicted Kuntar, the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel.

The Shiite Muslim militia group hails him as a hero.

Kuntar, who had been a member of the Palestine Liberation Front, led a group of four men who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat in 1979. They killed a police officer who came across them. Then they took a 28-year-old man and his four-year-old daughter hostage.

Kuntar shot the father dead at close range in front of his daughter and tossed his body in the sea. He also smashed the girl's head, killing her, too.

A 2-year-old daughter suffocated as her mother tried to stop her from crying as they hid from Kuntar.

He was sentenced to life and spent the last three decades in an Israeli jail -- until Wednesday, when he is expected to return home to a hero's welcome.