THE mother of an Israeli soldier snatched by Hezbollah fighters two years ago pleaded yesterday with the Israeli government to go ahead with an exchange of prisoners - even though she does not know if her son is dead or alive.

Miki Goldwasser, whose son Ehud, 32, is one of two captured soldiers due to be exchanged, begged Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, to proceed with the deal this week. “I urge Olmert to make the right decision to bring the boys back home,” she said.

Defence ministry officials briefed her last week on details of the proposed swap. “Today is one of the most difficult days of my life,” she said afterwards.

Goldwasser, a reserve corporal, was patrolling the Israeli-Lebanese border in 2006 when he and Eldad Regev, 27, were kidnapped by Hezbollah in an indicent which sparked a 33-day war in Lebanon.

The proposed exchange, negotiated by German intelligence, has led to fierce protests as it would involve the release of a Lebanese child-killer, Samir Kuntar, 45. Kuntar, a terrorist who landed on the coast of Israel in 1979. He broke into a flat, killed a young father and took hostage his four-year-old daughter. When he realised he was surrounded, he smashed the child’s head against a rock. Her sister, 2, was accidentally suffocated as their mother struggled to keep her quiet in their hiding place.

Arik Shahar, 35, who was six when Kuntar killed his father, a policeman, in a shootout, said: “I’d like this man to be locked up for the rest of his life.”

The prisoner exchange is one of a series of initiatives launched by Olmert to start peace talks with Israel’s neighbours, including Lebanon and Syria.

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