Hizbullah returns remains of five Israeli soldiers, as a step towards prisoner exchange

Israelis identify remains of five soldiers returned by Hizbullah

Tuesday June 03, 2008 02:47 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli sources reported that pathologists at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute managed to identify body tissues from the remains of five soldiers who were killed during the second Lebanon War between Israel and the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement, Hizbullah.

Four of the soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down during the war. They were identified as Major (Res.) Nissan Shalve, 36, from Kibbutz Evron; Captain (Res.) Daniel Gomez, 25, from Nehalim; First Sergeant-Major (Res.) Ron Mashiah, 33, from Gedera; and Major Sami Ben-Naim, 39 from Rehovot., the Israeli Ynet News reported.

The Ynet News added that the fifth soldier, identified as Sergeant-Major Gilad Zusman, was killed in August 2006.

The remains of the soldiers were placed in a box which was handed over to the Red Cross on Sunday after Nassim Nasser, who is believed to be a spy for Hezbollah, was freed by Israel and arrived to the Lebanese side of the border.

Nasser already spent most of his term before he was set free in this swap deal.

Officials at the Israeli forensic center said that most of the bone fragments have not been identified yet, an added that this process could take a month.

They added that even though some of the tissue and the bones are not in a good condition, forensics will be able to identify them via the DNA Technology available in Israel.

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Al-Manar website added today that this comes as a result of a German mediation for prisoner exchange between Hizbullah and Israel.

In the first stage of the exchange, Lebanese prisoners of war in Israel will be released in exchange for the two Israeli soldiers, who were captured by Hizbullah fighters.

In the second stage several Palestinian political prisoners will be released from Israeli occupation prisons as a gesture of goodwill demanded by Hizbullah, which is not related to the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchanged being brokered now by Egypt.

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