United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote in a report to the U.N. Security Council last Friday that Hizbullah’s continued refusal to provide a sign of life of the two IDF soldiers it kidnapped last summer is a human rights violation.

“I share deeply the anxiety of the families and call again on Hizbullah to reconsider this posture, which contradicts basic humanitarian values,” Ban wrote. The condition and whereabouts of the two reservists, who were kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists on July 12, 2006, is unknown.

A German intelligence agent appointed by previous U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has been conducting talks between Israel and Hizbullah on the issue.