News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Child-killer Samir Kuntar and four additional Lebanese terrorists have been released from Hadarim Prison and transferred to the Rosh Hanikra border crossing with Lebanon. Kuntar and his fellow terrorists are being freed by Israel in exchange for the bodies of kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were sent home to their families in two black coffins earlier in the day, after two years in captivity by the Hizbullah terrorists who abducted them.

--Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) congratulated the family of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar on his imminent return to Lebanon, along with four other live Hizbullah terrorists and the bodies of 199 others who were exhumed by IDF engineers and rabbinical reservists earlier in the week. Abbas also expressed his formal condolences to the families of the terrorists whose remains are to be returned by Israel.

Two Years Ago Today at IsraelNN
Aides to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas against joining forces with Hamas a second time. Two leaders met in Jerusalem, where Prime Minister Olmert offered to release hundreds of terrorists, remove hundreds more from Israel’s wanted list, and stop arresting terrorists in Judea and Samaria. "The gestures are a calculated risk and not a dangerous calculation," his aides said.

Three Years Today at IsraelNN
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continued to stand by his government’s policy that the military offensive in Gaza is intended to bring an end the rocket fire into southern Israel and obtain the release of hostage soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit. He said the offensive would continue until the soldier is released unconditionally.

--Eight people were killed, one person is in critical condition and five others were seriously wounded in a Hizbullah terrorist rocket attack on Haifa.

Seventy-five Years Ago in Israel's History
Tens of thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Chaim Nahman Bialik, the Hebrew poet who died in Vienna just a few days earlier while undergoing surgery.

Thirty-four Years Ago in Israel’s History
A conference of foreign ministers of Muslim states called for the expulsion of Israel from the United Nations.