Israel confirmed Wednesday that two caskets turned over by Hezbollah contained the bodies of soldiers captured two years ago, reports NPR.

Israeli defense officials were quoted by The Associated Press as saying forensics experts had positively identified the remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

The confirmation was a condition for Israel turning over five Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah as part of an exchange negotiated earlier.
 
The swap — mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official who shuttled between the sides for 18 months — closes a painful chapter for Israel, which launched a war against Hezbollah in response to the soldiers' capture in a cross-border raid.
 
As part of the deal, Israel was to free Samir Qantar and four other prisoners said by Hezbollah to be the last Lebanese captives in Israel.
 
Qantar had been serving a life prison term for the deaths of four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl and her father, in a 1979 Palestinian guerrilla attack on an Israeli town.

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