Last update - 00:00 29/07/2007
President, parents dismiss report one soldier died in Hezbollah's hands
By Haaretz Staff
President Shimon Peres said on Sunday that Israel is acting under the assumption that both Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted last year by Hezbollah guerillas are still alive.
"Our position has not changed, and we are doing everything to bring the boys home," Army Radio quoted Peres as saying.
The president was responding to a report in the pro-government Lebanese daily An-Nahar that only one of the two is still alive.
The mother of one of two IDF soldiers also rejected the report. Miki Goldwasser, the mother of Ehud Goldwasser, told Israel Radio on Sunday that the report was "a cynical attempt to toy with the feelings of the abductees' families."
Goldwasser and fellow IDF reservist Eldad Regev were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah fighters in July 2006. The raid, in which three other IDF soldiers were killed, sparked the Second Lebanon War.
Shlomo Goldwasser, Ehud's father, said Saturday the families of the two soldiers had dismissed the information as unsubstantiated.
"When information existed as though both soldiers were alive and well, we did not take them seriously," he said.
"Since the abduction we have received one message or another that Red Cross representatives would be allowed to visit or would be given details that could indicate with certainty at their condition."
An-Nahar quoted German sources as saying that they "understood that one of the prisoners was still alive and that the other had died."
The report also said the Germans had attempted to glean information about the soldiers from General Michel Aoun, who is close to Hezbollah, but that Aoun had refused to discuss the matter.
The United Nations is brokering talks between Israel and Hezbollah over the soldiers, apparently through a German intelligence operative.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah emphasized last week that the UN is continuing to mediate between Israel and his Islamic group in order to reach an agreement over swapping prisoners.
Nasrallah said he would pass information over the medical condition of the men only in return for Israeli concessions as part of negotiations.