Israelis mourn for slain soldiers finally laid to rest

THOUSANDS of mourners turned out for the burials of two Israeli soldiers returned in a prisoner exchange with Lebanese guerrillas, laying to rest the young men whose unknown fate had riveted the Jewish state for two years.

Across the border in Lebanon, the five militants freed as part of the prisoner swap prayed at the grave of Imad Mughniyeh, a slain Hezbollah military commander. They vowed to keep fighting Israel.

Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser’s remains were returned by Hezbollah on Wednesday in exchange for five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of some 200 Arab fighters. The pair’s 2006 capture in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah sparked a month-long war. It is not clear whether they died in captivity or during the raid in which they were seized.

Soldiers carried the casket of Eldad Regev, draped with the blue and white Israeli flag, to the military cemetery in the northern city of Haifa yesterday. Thousands of mourners trailed behind.

Regev was 26 when he was taken.

Earlier in the day, mourners buried Goldwasser, who was 31 at the time of his capture.

His wooden coffin was lowered into the ground in the northern town of Nahariya by soldiers wearing the purple caps of an elite brigade. His widow, Karnit Goldwasser, held on to her late husband’s father as each wiped away tears.

In keeping with Jewish tradition, Goldwasser’s father Shlomo wore a shirt ripped at the front to signify mourning. Later, an Israeli military rabbi recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak, his voice breaking, reassured soldiers at Goldwasser’s funeral that they won’t be left behind in battle.

“If, God forbid, any of you fall captive and the worst happens in the fight against terror groups or the envoys of the enemy, the state of Israel ... will make every possible effort... to bring you home,” he said.

Karnit Goldwasser told mourners that the funeral took place a day before Goldwasser’s birthday.

“One day before your birthday I ask, Toush, maybe time will allow the bleeding wounds to heal?” she said, referring to her late husband by his nickname. “Although I am without you, I will always be with you.”

During the past two years, she led a campaign to secure the release of her husband and Regev, frequently travelling abroad and meeting with world leaders.