News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) An official government announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office reveals that PM Olmert and the government believe that the July 12, 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev was initiated by the Hizbullah terrorist organization in order to free convicted terrorist commander Samir Kuntar, who led a seaborne terror attack into Israel in 1979, leading to the deaths of an entire family and two police officers. Kuntar is scheduled to be freed under the current agreement, and was also part of a proposed 2004 agreement wherein he would be exchanged for information regarding captive IAF navigator Ron Arad, who fell into Hizbullah hands in 1986.

The report states that the facts presented to the Cabinet have been known for “quite some time," including that ”it is highly probable that the kidnapping which led to their deaths was, at the outset, based on the Hizbullah’s desire to bring about the release of Samir Kuntar.  This is with the knowledge that they do not wish to, or cannot uphold the commitment provided in the earlier agreement regarding the imparting of details on Ron Arad.”

The 2006 kidnapping led to the second Lebanon war, in which 119 IDF soldiers were killed and more than 400 wounded.