First grisly stage of prisoner swap begins

The IDF Chaplains Corps began exhuming bodies from a special graveyard this week as part of the first stage of the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbollah.

For its part, Hizbollah presented their preliminary report on missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

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Lessons of Shalit’s story

Activities about captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit have been a feature of a visit this week by teachers from the Kerner Primary in Meona, Northern Israel, to the Clore Tikva Primary in Redbridge under the aegis of the UJIA Schools to Schools project.

During his time as a Kerner pupil, Gilad Shalit wrote a story about the morality of friendship and peace which was discovered at the school after his capture.

The story has since been published in Israel with illustrations by Israeli artists.

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Hizbollah, Israel settle terms of prisoner swap

Israel is due to receive Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured two years ago, in the next two weeks in return for five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of 10 Hizbollah fighters.

The cabinet voted this Sunday in favour of the plan despite Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warning that the two soldiers are presumed to be dead.

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Family fury as Olmert zig-zags on prisoner swap

The Israeli cabinet is to vote on Sunday on the prisoner exchange with Hizbollah, after a week in which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert twice changed his mind on the deal by which Israel is to receive two soldiers in return for handing over five Lebanese prisoners.

The prisoner swap seemed imminent last week after Israeli and Lebanese sources both confirmed that a deal had been brokered by the German government.

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Hamas prisoner swap ‘on course’

The negotiations over the release of captured Israeli soldier First-Sergeant Gilad Shalit are expected to intensify this week in Cairo, a week into the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The ceasefire, which began last Thursday morning, has not been without its hiccups. Though both sides observed their commitments not to launch attacks on and from the Gaza Strip, Hamas did not prevent the Islamic Jihad movement from firing three rockets at Israel on Tuesday, in retaliation to one of its senior members being killed by the IDF near Nablus in the West Bank.

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