Hizbullah deputy chief Naim Kassem said on Tuesday that his organization would continue to kidnap IDF soldiers in order to bring about the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails. Kassem told Hizbullah supporters during a rally in Beirut that Israel would eventually yield to the group's demands to free Lebanese detainees. Meanwhile, Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband, Ehud, was kidnapped by Hizbullah in 2006, said on Tuesday that because of halted talks between the relevant sides, she was unsure whether he would return. "The present situation is that the negotiations are completely jammed. After a year and a half were in the exact spot we were in a day after the kidnapping.
"I go home alone, and don't know what to expect - whether Udi will return alive or notÂ… I will make every effort to get him back," Goldwasser told representatives of Jewish communities in Hong Kong, Singapore and London during a conference organized by the Jewish Agency. The conference was aimed at raising international awareness of kidnapped soldiers.
Goldwasser asked Jewish representatives to call on their national leaders to approach the Lebanese government in an effort to get them to apply pressure to Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah to release Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured in the same incident.