Israel's Cabinet on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a Lebanese militant convicted in an infamous 1979 attack for two Israeli soldiers captured by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group and believed to be dead. A radical Palestinian faction says it doesn't want its fighters' bodies repatriated as part of a prisoner swap. Israel is expected to return five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of about 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters Wednesday in exchange for two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in July 2006. It has not revealed the identities of the militants whose bodies will be returned. Hezbollah has given no evidence that soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are alive, and has not allowed the Red Cross to see them since they were captured on July 12, 2006, in a cross-border raid. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet last month that Israel thinks the men did not survive. The deal, approved in a 22-3 vote, reflects the country's deep moral commitment to its soldiers that they will never be left behind in the field. It also will close a painful chapter from Israel's inconclusive war against Hezbollah, which was sparked by the soldiers' capture. Zvi Regev, Eldad's father, said he was holding out hope his son might still be alive. “I really hope this nightmare will end tomorrow,” he told Israel Radio. “We will accept whatever will be. We need to be strong and accept it for better or for worse.” Critics have said that by trading bodies for prisoners, Israel is giving militants little incentive to keep captured soldiers alive. And although polls suggest a large majority of Israelis support the exchange, many Israelis were anguished at the prospect that killer Samir Kantar would go free. Kantar, then 16, was one of four militants who made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to Israel's northern shore in 1979 and attacked an apartment building in the coastal city of Nahariya. Britain bans Hezbollah British lawmakers voted Tuesday to include the military wing of Lebanese-based group Hezbollah to Britain's list of banned terrorist organizations, charging it supported terror activities in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. The action by the House of Commons would make it a crime to join or support the military wing of the group. Britain's minister in charge of fighting terrorism Tony McNulty charged that the movement was linked to insurgent groups in Iraq that had attacked coalition soldiers. The ban passed the chamber unopposed. The measure will take effect with the House of Lords expected approval later this week.
