Israel OKs Hezbollah hostage swap

JERUSALEM – The Israeli government agreed Sunday to free a Lebanese gunman convicted in one of the grisliest attacks in the country’s history in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah guerrillas.

The German-mediated deal was a rare political victory for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and closed a chapter from Israel’s inconclusive war against the Lebanese militant group two years ago.

But critics warned that the deal’s heavy price for Israel could offer militant groups an even greater incentive to kill captive soldiers. In Lebanon Sunday, Hezbollah declared victory and planned celebrations.

Israel’s Cabinet voted 22-3 to OK the deal to return the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured by Hezbollah in a July 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a vicious monthlong war.

Before a six-hour Cabinet debate, Olmert announced for the first time that the soldiers were dead. He nevertheless pushed for the deal to be approved, citing the country’s deep moral commitment to its dead and captive soldiers.

“Since we were children, we have been taught that we don’t leave wounded in the field and we don’t leave soldiers in captivity without doing all we can to free them,” he said.

The most difficult part for Israel was the release of Samir Kantar. He is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing three Israelis – a 28-year-old man, his 4-year-old daughter and an Israeli police officer.

In Beirut, Hezbollah said the Israeli approval of the deal reflected the group’s strength.