Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV station today released a new video related to the July 2006 abduction of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, which had led to the start of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The new video details how Hezbollah operatives trained around the area where the abduction took place. The video includes a digital simulation showing how Hezbollah planned the operation.
Khalid Bazzi, also known as Hajj Qasim, who led the operation, is shown in the video speaking to Hezbollah operatives. Bazzi died during the 2006 war in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force. Imad Mughniyah, a former senior Hezbollah commander who is believed to have masterminded the abduction, is also mentioned in the video. Mughniyah was killed in Damascus in February 2008.
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Imad Mughniyah, left, and Khalid Bazzi, right. |
While today’s video included new material, it also recycled footage from a video released last year that showed portions of the attack itself. Parts of today’s video also recycled material from a 2010 program by Al Manar on Bazzi. In that program, Bazzi was praised as “the one who defeated the Zionists.”
In July 2008, the bodies of Goldwasser and Regev were returned to Israel in an exchange deal that saw the release of a few terrorists, including Samir Kuntar, and the bodies of nearly 200 Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists. In 1979, Kuntar participated in a terror attack in Nahariya that led to the deaths of a number of Israelis, including four-year-old Einat Haran. Kuntar killed Einat by bashing her skull with the butt of his rifle against a rock.
Videos such as the one released today are not uncommon. For example, in October 2012 Hamas released a video detailing its preparations for the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. Shalit was returned to Israel in the first part of an exchange deal on Oct. 18, 2011.
