2006 Hezbollah Cross-border Raid - Aftermath

Aftermath

The IDF confirmed the capture of the two Israeli soldiers on 13 July. They were both reservists on their last day of operational duty.

Hezbollah released a statement saying "Implementing our promise to free Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, our strugglers have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon." Later on, Hassan Nasrallah declared that "No military operation will return them…he prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade of prisoners."

The incident prompted the start of the 2006 Lebanon War. Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery shelling of Hezbollah targets, and a naval blockade against Lebanon, followed by a ground invasion. After 34 days of fighting, a cease-fire came into effect. During the war, Israeli forces took four Hezbollah fighters prisoner, and captured the bodies of ten more.

On 6 August the IDF announced one of the Hezbollah participants was captured in a commando operation.

On 27 August 2006, Nasrallah denied in an interview with New TV that the abduction of the two soldiers was the cause of the war. It only advanced a long planned war for a few months. But he added: "If there was even a 1 percent chance that the July 11 capturing operation would have led to a war like the one that happened, would you have done it? I would say no, absolutely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military, and political reasons. What happened is not an issue of a reaction to a capturing operation… what happened was already planned for. The fact that it happened in July has averted a situation that would have been a lot worse, had the war been launched in October."

On the other side, however; Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert testified before the Winograd Commission that he had fully planned for an intensive war upon a kidnapping as early as March.

Nasrallah stated on 31 October 2006 that indirect talks with Israel on hostage return had begun.

Haaretz reported in March 2007 that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert testified to the Winograd Commission that several meetings regarding Hezbollah were held upon his taking office, and that in response to the likely scenario of soldiers again being abducted, he chose one of several plans of action instead of having to make a snap-judgement if and when such a scenario occurred.

On 6 December 2006, a previously classified report released by Israel stated that the two soldiers were critically wounded during the abduction.

On 29 June 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the two captives dead. On 16 July 2008 Hezbollah swapped the bodies of Ehud and Eldad for Samir Kuntar, four Hezbollah prisoners captured during the 2006 Lebanon war, and the bodies of 199 killed Palestinian and Lebanese fighters, eight of whom were captured in the 2006 war.