Information on missing airman Ron Arad was part of an exchange between Israel and Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that the exchange of bodies was part of a process of negotiations to obtain the release of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured last summer near the Lebanese border, Israel Radio reported. But Olmert said the soldiers, as well as Gilad Shalit, captured last summer near Gaza, will not be returned to Israel soon.
Israeli officials would not confirm reports Tuesday by Lebanese television and the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that notes written by Arad shortly after his capture were given to Israel when it turned over the bodies of two Hezbollah gunmen and a sick prisoner in exchange for the body of a missing Israeli citizen on Monday.
Arad’s daughter and brother flew to Berlin this week in an attempt to prevent the release of an Iranian prisoner from a German jail. The prisoner was to be part of an exchange for information on Arad six years ago, according to Israel Radio.
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