Israel buries soldiers recovered in prisoner swap

Ehud Goldwasser was the first to be buried, in his northern coastal hometown of Nahariya.

Thousands of people -- including his widow, Karnit; his parents, friends and senior politicians -- gathered at the cemetery.

Goldwasser’s coffin, draped in the blue and white Israeli flag, was carried to the graveside by his comrades from the elite Golani infantry brigade, as Karnit followed and a military rabbi read from the psalms.

Among the mourners was defense minister and former army Chief Ehud Barak.

"We wanted to welcome you again with your comrade Eldad (Regev)," he said. "We wanted to embrace you and see you smile. But it is our tears that accompany you today, and our heart is heavy."

He renewed a commitment that Israel would do "everything humanly possible" to bring home any soldier who falls into the hands of the enemy.

Among those present were relatives of Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured two years ago in a Palestinian militant raid on a border post from the Gaza Strip. Israel has so far failed to secure his release.

Karnit delivered an emotional good-bye to her husband, who would have turned 33 on Friday.

"My heart weeps and hurts," she said. "I had hoped that I would awake one day and say that this had been just a dream, a bad dream."

The seizure of Goldwasser and Regev in a July 12, 2006 cross-border raid sparked a devastating 34-day war in which Israel failed in one of its key objectives, which was to recover them.

From that day until Wednesday, when their coffins were brought to the border for exchange, the Lebanese militant group never revealed whether they were alive or dead.

But press reports said the army now believed that they were both killed in the ambush in which they were taken from their burning Humvee, or that one may have died shortly afterwards.

The Jerusalem Post quoted officials as saying they both died in the ambush. Goldwasser suffered a lethal wound to the chest from a rocket-propelled grenade.

His comrade, Eldad Regev, appeared to have been shot in the head, perhaps as he attempted to escape the burning vehicle.

Haaretz said the two were killed during the ambush, or died shortly afterwards. It said Goldwasser took most of the impact from the RPG, and that Regev was probably also hit, before being shot at close range when the attackers reached the vehicle.

Yediot Aharonot said forensic pathologists had difficulty reaching their conclusions because the bodies had not been refrigerated.

Regev, 27, was buried in an afternoon service at Haifa cemetery with his parents and family looking on among several hundred mourners, who included Barak and the Shalit family.

Regev’s father, Tsvi, and his brothers joined together to recite the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

There followed tributes from his brothers and comrades, as well as from Barak.

Brother Ofer Regev spoke of his pride in a country that fought to bring him home, to count him among those who love rather than hate, pride in his army and "in you Eldad, my little brother, a true patriot.

"Rest in peace, Eldad. You are home."

The bodies of the two reserve soldiers were handed over to Israel on Wednesday as part of a swap deal in which the Jewish state freed four Hezbollah fighters captured during the 2006 war, a convicted triple murderer and the remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed over the years.

Photo: AP