Soldiers come home on a day of public mourning

IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were laid to rest yesterday (Thursday), two years and four days after the Hizbollah attack on their patrol which triggered the Second Lebanon War.

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Miller hearing begins

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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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Bulldozer killer’s home may not be demolished

High-ranking IDF officers have advised Defence Minister Ehud Barak not to order the demolition of home of Husam Dwiat, who killed three Israelis last Wednesday in Jerusalem.

Calls for the demolition of the house of Dwiat’s family in the Sur Bahir neighbourhood of East Jerusalem were heard from politicians following the tractor rampage in which Dwiat killed Bat Sheva Unterman, Elizabeth (Lili) Goren and Jean Relevy and wounded more than 50 others, before being shot by an off-duty soldier.

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Gaza journalist ‘beaten’ by IDF

A Palestinian journalist returning from a visit to the UK to receive an award has been hospitalised with fractured ribs and breathing difficulties following  what he claimed was abuse by Israeli security officials.

Mohammed Omer, 24, told the JC by phone from his bed in Gaza’s European Hospital that on June 26 at the Allenby Bridge Crossing into the West Bank he was strip-searched, questioned in an abusive manner and physically harmed, including being shaken and dragged across the floor.

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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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Prisoner swap close as families cling to hope

A prisoner deal between Israel and Hizbollah is a “matter of days” away, according to Israeli officials, as the families of the captured israeli soldiers cling to hope they might still be alive.

In the deal, Israel will transfer to Lebanon convicted murderer Samir Kuntar and four Hizbollah members. Israel will receive its two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured two years ago. The unofficial assumption in Israel is that the soldiers are dead.

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Shalit ‘begs for life’ in letter to family

Hamas has heightened the pressure on Israel by releasing another letter from captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

In the letter, addressed to his parents, First-Sergeant Shalit begged for his life and urged the Israeli government to do everything in its power to secure his release.

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Progress in prisoner swap but hopes fade for soldiers

The first stage of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbollah took place this week amid growing fears that the two IDF soldiers captured two years ago are dead.

Hizbollah surprised Israel with a consignment of body parts, belonging to five soldiers killed during the Second Lebanon War.

The handover at Nakura on Sunday was supposed to be of convicted spy Nassim Nasser who had finished serving his six-year prison sentence in Israel.

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Israeli politician who advocates ‘transfer’ of Arabs due in London

One of Israel’s most controversial politicians, former deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman, has been invited to London next month by Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael and the Israel Business Club, in an attempt to spark  debate that will assist fundraising.

“Many of the members of the Israeli and the Jewish community in London, who are likely to donate money, do actually agree with Lieberman’s opinions,” said Dubi Bergman, KKL’s representative in London.

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