Defense Minister Ehud Barak assured the audience at the Technion's graduation ceremony Thursday night that "we have not forgotten" the IDF soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists in 2006, adding "we will not forget their families."
The wife of kidnapped reservist Ehud Goldwasser – Karnit – was a member of the graduating class who received a diploma at the ceremony. Goldwasser and his fellow reservist, Eldad Regev, were abducted by Hizbullah terrorists in the cross-border attack that kicked off the Second Lebanon War. Their condition and whereabouts are still unknown.
IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid from Gaza less than a month earlier, has also languished in captivity since 2006. Unlike with Goldwasser and Regev, however, his captors have provided several signs of life from Shalit.