Hezbollah loaded two coffins into Red Cross vehicles on Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap that for the first time revealed the fate of two Israeli soldiers captured by the militants two years ago.
Guerrillas snatched the soldiers in a July 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a monthlong war with Israel.
Once in Israel, DNA or other tests will be conducted to confirm the identities of the bodies inside the two plain black-colored coffins.
"We are handing over the two Israeli soldiers that were captured by the resistance...and whose fate has been unknown until this moment," said senior Hezbollah security official Wafik Safa. "Now you know their fate."
The transfer is part of a United Nations-mediated deal in which Israel promised to release five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of nearly 200 dead militants.
Israel has long thought the men were dead, but Hezbollah had never commented on their condition.
Israel moved the five Lebanese prisoners to a military base near the seaside border before dawn, preparing for their transfer to Lebanon. Among them was militant Samir Kantar, who was expected to receive a hero's welcome after being convicted for a 1979 attack that left an Israeli policeman, a man and his two children dead.
A platform was erected on the Lebanese side of the border with a drum corps poised to welcome the returnees. A sign next to a large photograph of an Israeli woman crying read "Israel is shedding tears of pain." Another nearby banner read "Lebanon is shedding tears of joy."
Setting aside decades of resistance and breaking what had been a long-held taboo, Israel's Cabinet gave final approval Tuesday to free Kantar.
He and Israel's four remaining Hezbollah prisoners from the 2006 war won't be handed over to Red Cross representatives in Lebanon until Israeli forensic experts positively identify the bodies of the Israel soldiers.
The border crossing area was declared a closed military zone until the swap is completed.
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