Government sources have confirmed that Israel has taken the first steps towards paying the ransom agreed upon with the Lebanese Hizbullah for the return of two kidnapped IDF soldiers, information about a third MIA and the bodies of several others.
Implementation of the deal began on Monday with the exhumation of over 190 graves by 
Dekel did not receive the Hizbullah report on... captured IAF navigator Ron Arad.
the IDF Chief Rabbinate at the Cemetery for Enemy Dead in northern Israel.
"The continued implementation of the deal is conditioned on several components regarding which no details will be given," a spokesperson for the Prime Minister explained in a statement.
The Prime Minister's Office responded to questions about the implementation of the exchange, dubbed Operation Return of the Sons, by stating that it formally got underway with the signing of terms. Ofer Dekel, the government's appointee for MIA negotiations, signed the deal Monday evening during a meeting with the UN-appointed German mediator Gerhard Konrad.
This confirmed earlier statements by Hizbullah sources that the ransom agreement negotiated with Israel had been given final approval with the signature of a representative of the Iran-backed terrorist organization. While the date for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, or their remains, will be determined later this week, Hizbullah sources have proposed that the exchange take place as early as next week.
Contrary to earlier reports, Dekel did not receive the Hizbullah report on the whereabouts and status of captured IAF navigator Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986. "It will be received following the completion of the clarification process between the UN envoy and Hizbullah," the PMO statement said. Israel has passed along a set of questions to be answered by the Lebanese terrorists.
The continuation of the exchange is contingent on the information contained in the Hizbullah's report on Arad, according to sources in the Prime Minister’s Office. "After the report is received, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will convene the Cabinet to discuss the continued implementation of the deal," Olmert's spokesperson said.
Even as the deal with the Iranian proxy militia, Hizbullah, gets underway, the Iranian Ambassador to the UN called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to assist Tehran in "returning the four diplomats" missing since the first Lebanon War in 1982. Iran has stated previously that it believes Israel is aware of the whereabouts and fate of four Iranian agents who were in Lebanon at the time. Israel has repeatedly stated that the four were killed by Christian militias. Israel is expected to pass on a report containing intelligence regarding the issue to Hizbullah as part of the ongoing ransom process.
On the other hand, Israel's Supreme Court rejected a petition by the families of 12 missing Iranian Jews to hold up the deal until information on their whereabouts is received.