JERUSALEM — Closing an uneasy chapter of its 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel prepared to swap the most notorious Lebanese convict in its prisons today for the remains of two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the fighting.
The deal, approved by Israel's Cabinet on Tuesday, revived raw emotions on both sides of the 34-day conflict: Israel's frustration over its failure to crush an Arab foe and Hezbollah's euphoria in holding off a powerful army until a U.N.-brokered truce.
But it promised closure in the case of Israeli reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured on the battlefield and left to a fate kept secret by the militant Islamic group until today.
Under the exchange, organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, two black coffins presumed to be carrying the reservists' bodies were driven to a seaside border crossing for inspection by Israeli authorities.
Once their identities are confirmed, a Lebanese militant convicted of murdering two adults and a child is to be escorted to the crossing and return home, unrepentant, to a festive, government-sponsored hero's welcome.
Painful though it is for Israelis, the arrangement reflects their country's tradition of sparing no effort to retrieve captured soldiers or their remains. It is also the result of a campaign by the missing soldiers' families to sway officials who were reluctant to give up a high-value prisoner.
"It's not a happy choice," Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday before signing a pardon for the convict, Samir Kuntar. "On one hand, we have the most terrible murderer. On the other hand, we have our commitment to our boys who were sent to fight for their country. It is our moral duty and our heartfelt wish to see them come back."
As the Israeli soldiers families waited at their homes this morning for word of their loved ones Kuntar and four other Lebanese inmates included in the swap left prison in a police escorted convoy to an army camp near the border to await handover.
The Lebanese prisoners were to arrive at a reception at Beirut's airport with the leaders of Lebanon's government, which declared today a national holiday "to celebrate the liberation of prisoners from the jails of the Israeli enemy."
Thousands of plastic chairs were being set up for a rally in their honor in the capital's southern suburbs. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was expected to speak there.
