Faded Hope

I had considered it a longshot that Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev, or Gilad Shalit would be released alive, especially the longer that their captivity by Islamic terrorists endured. There have been few signs that they are alive, and the inability to confirm that they're alive must be extremely disheartening to their families.

A report today suggests that either Goldwasser or Regev have indeed died while in the hands of Hizbullah.

One of two Israel Defense Forces kidnapped by Hezbollah last summer is no longer alive, a Lebanese newspaper reported Saturday.

In the first report by a Lebanese media outlet on the soldiers' fate since their 2006 abduction, the a-Nahar daily quoted German diplomatic sources as saying they were under the impression that either Ehud Goldwasser or Eldad Regev had died.

Hezbollah abducted Regev and Goldwasser in a cross-border raid last July that sparked the Second Lebanon War.

It was the capture of Goldwasser and Regev in a Hizbullah invasion of Israel last summer that sparked a month long war that ravaged Lebanon and did considerable damage to Northern Israel as Hizbullah hid among civilian areas in South Lebanon and fired off thousands of rockets and mortars against Israeli cities.

The families of Goldwasser and Regev are both discounting the reports are unsubstantiated, as without any evidence there is no way to corroborate the information. Hizbullah has refused to give the Red Cross or Red Crescent access to see the Israeli soldiers.

I simply don't trust Hizbullah on this, but their intentions are quite clear - they are itching for another conflict with Israel and are rearming North of the Litani River in Southern Lebanon.