By Weedah Hamza, Ofira Koopmans and Benita van Eyssen Jul 16, 2008, 21:54 GMT
Beirut/Tel Aviv - A triumphant Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah greeted as a 'victory' the return of five prisoners to Lebanese soil, as Israel mourned the repatriation of two dead soldiers under a long-anticipated exchange between the two enemies.
The exchange, brokered by a United Nations-appointed German mediator, came two years and four days after the two soldiers' capture by Hezbollah. It closed the final chapter of a deadly, month- long war in the summer of 2006, which was sparked by the cross-border raid in which the radical Shiite movement had snatched the two soldiers.
'The days of defeat days have ended ... victory has appeared,' Nasrallah told a mass rally in southern Beirut celebrating the release of Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) militant Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah prisoners of war captured in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
'God is great, Nasrallah is our leader,' chanted the crowds as Nasrallah, appearing for the first time in public since December 2006, stood next to the five men.
He then left the podium to deliver the rest of his speech via a television screen for security reasons.
Kuntar - who had been serving multiple life sentences in Israel for leading a 1979 raid into northern Israel that left five Israelis dead - and the four others had earlier received a red-carpet welcome at Beirut International Airport.
Flown in by helicopters from the southern Lebanese border town of Naqoura, they were received by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Seniora and lawmakers from both the opposition and ruling majority.
'Your return today is a blessing for all Lebanon,' said Suleiman.
Cries of joy echoed through Beirut airport's VIP room, as the families were united with their loved ones for the first time.
'I have waited for this moment for 30 years,' Kuntar's mother told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.
'Looking at the first pictures of Samir, free after 30 years, which we saw on the television a few moments ago, was very emotional,' Kuntar's brother Bassam told dpa just before the reunification.
'I am happy to be home,' Kuntar said earlier in a brief statement as he walked into Lebanon at the Naqoura/Rosh Ha'Nikra border crossing.
Having traded the civilian clothes given to them by their Israeli prison wardens for military fatigues and caps, they were escorted by Hezbollah militants, who waved Lebanese, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags as the crowd threw flowers at them.
In sharp contrast to the scenes of joy on the northern side of the border, the families of the two Israeli soldiers arrived at Shraga, an Israeli military base north of Haifa, where they were united with their loved ones.
Ofer Dekel, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's representative who had negotiated the prisoners exchanged, read out the Kadish - the Jewish prayer of mourning, over two coffins wrapped in Israeli flags.
Hezbollah had kept the condition of its two Israeli captives a secret until the very last minute. Confirmation they were dead came only when Hezbollah officials, in front of journalists and TV cameras, unloaded two black coffins from a vehicle and handed them to Red Cross officials on the Lebanese side of the border.
The identification process, which Israel's chief military rabbi described as 'complicated and difficult,' took several hours, with a top Hezbollah official in charge of the swap, Wafik Safa, telling reporters the soldiers' bodies were in 'bad condition.'
According to a Hezbollah source, the soldiers - Eldad Regev and Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser - were badly burnt during the raid in which they were captured.
The soldiers probably died on the day they were captured two years ago, Israeli news channels reported, quoting a preliminary pathological report, composed after the bodies were identified.
According to the report, Goldwasser and Regev were hit by rocket- propelled grenades, and Regev was also shot in the head.
The Regev and Goldwasser families had followed the transfer from their respective homes in the northern Israeli towns of Qiryat Motzkin and Nahariya. Their hope turned to grief as they watched the live images of Hezbollah handing over two coffins.
Regev's brother Benny told reporters hours later that his family had been realistic, but had kept hoping for the chance that the two soldiers were still alive. 'Hope was weak, but it still existed and to my regret, today it was dashed,' he said.
Goldwasser and Regev were posthumously promoted to first sergeant and sergeant first class. Their military funerals were to be held on Thursday in their respective home towns, an army statement said.
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