AP
Posted: 2:51 am
June 30, 2008
JERUSALEM - Israel's Cabinet overwhelmingly backed a deal yesterday with Hezbollah to swap a Lebanese prisoner for the bodies of two captured soldiers who were declared dead earlier in the day.
The proposed deal also needs the approval of the Lebanese militant group's secretive, decision-making Shura Council.
Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said for the first time that Israel has concluded the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were dead.
The Cabinet debated the deal for nearly six hours before voting 22-3 to back the agreement, said Olmert's spokesman, Jacob Galanti.
