Two faces that launched a Middle East war have briefly reappeared after nine months out of sight.

Photographs of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev appeared on billboards on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where they were kidnapped while on patrol, triggering what is now known as the Second Lebanon War.

The timing of the stunt, organised by Hezbollah on the Lebanese side, was symbolic: on Monday an Israeli commission investigating the 34-day war with the Shia militia will present its interim findings.

To the families of Mr Goldwasser, 31, and Mr Regev, 26, the billboard was, however, a cruel taunt, for no one knows where the soldiers are, the conditions they are in or even if they are alive.

“If the idea was to hurt me, there was no point. I don’t need any help to remember my own pain,” said Karnit Goldwasser, who was married to Ehud less than a year before he was kidnapped.

Everywhere in their tidy, third-floor flat near Haifa there are reminders of her life with “Udi”: a wall he painted in bright stripes before he left for reserve duty, the half-finished furniture he was making, his unwashed laundry that his wife cannot bear to clean.

Mr Goldwasser, an environmental engineer, was captured on his last day of reserve duty. His wife was cooking a “welcome home” meal when she heard that his platoon had been ambushed.

She immediately sent him a text message, then called.

There was no response. “Nothing has changed since that day,” she said.

The only clue they have that the soldiers are still alive came from a Hezbollah official who told a newspaper this month that they were being treated humanely. “This is not a sign of life. A sign of life is when somebody trustworthy sees them and tells me he is alive,” Mrs Goldwasser said.

The families are bitter that Hezbollah has not allowed the Red Cross or any other neutral party to visit the soldiers. They reserve, though, their harshest criticism for Mr Olmert.

The Prime Minister began the war promising there would be no end to the fighting until Mr Goldwasser and Mr Regev were freed. As casualties mounted — nearly 160 Israelis died in the conflict — he accepted a UN brokered ceasefire that did not require the return of the missing men.

“I know there were big mistakes during the war, but maybe the answer was to continue until our goal was achieved,” Mrs Goldwasser said. A ten-minute drive away, the Regev family hold their own vigil for the prelaw student who was captured a month into his active duty.

“The Government is telling us it is doing everything it can to free them but I’m not sure that’s the case,” Eldad’s father, Tzvi, said. “The war should have gone on. For the families of the kidnapped soldiers, our war has continued.”

The two families have joined forces with Noam Schalit, the father of Gilad Schalit, the 19-year-old Israeli corporal captured by Hamas militants from Gaza in June. Together they have made impassioned pleas around the world for information and pressured their own Government to negotiate with the captors.

Mrs Goldwasser, like her husband an environmental engineer, has appealed to the wives of Hezbollah fighters to help her to free her husband. Mr Regev, a retired telephone repairman, has seen heads of state around the world to press their cause. Mr Schalit offered himself up as a hostage in Gaza in exchange for his son’s freedom.

“I don’t have much confidence in our leadership because of my experience,” he said. “We have to work ourselves to remedy this situation.”

Israel is now examining a list from Hamas of Palestinian prisoners it wants freed from Israeli jails in exchange for Corporal Schalit. Such an exchange is viewed by all of the families as their best chance to bring their loved ones home again. “The issue is very cruel and simple. We have to release murderers for live soldiers,” Mr Schalit said.

Israel has previously made deals with Hezbollah to release captured troops or their remains, and last summer Ofer Dekel, a former deputy head of the Shin Bet security service, was appointed to negotiate with Hezbollah. But there is no prospect of a deal.

If the stalemate continues, the families say Israel should consider other options. Mrs Goldwasser said: “If we need to go back to war and bring them home by force, that is what the country needs to do.”

The Second Lebanon War

July 12 Hezbollah crosses into northern Israel and captures Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Eight other Israeli soldiers are killed. Israel strikes back with bombing raids and a naval blockade

July 14 Hezbollah leader promises all-out war after Israeli warplanes attack his residence

July 17 Helicopters and ships commandeered to retrieve trapped foreign nationals

Aug 2 Israeli forces expand ground operations in Lebanon on four new fronts

Aug 4 Hezbollah fires 220 rockets in one day

Aug 12 UN Security Council votes unanimously for “full cessation of hostilities”

Aug 14 Ceasefire begins

Source: Times archives

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