NAHARIYA, Israel — Thousands of Israelis prayed and cried at funerals Thursday for two soldiers whose return from Lebanon in black coffins touched off a nationwide wave of anguish.
Across the border, a second day of celebrations swept Lebanon for the five militants freed by Israel in exchange for the soldiers’ bodies. The five prayed at the grave of a slain Hezbollah military commander and vowed to keep fighting Israel.
The contrast in moods was tangible. In Israel, sorrowful pictures and sounds of the funerals of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, dominated TV and radio broadcasts, the tears of the widows and parents shown over and over.
Soldiers carried Regev’s casket, draped with the blue and white Israeli flag, into the military cemetery in the northern city of Haifa. A military rabbi chanted as Regev’s father leaned on another family member, who comforted him. Thousands of mourners trailed behind.
Regev and Goldwasser were captured two years ago in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah fighters — an attack that led to a 34-day war between Israel and the Islamic militant group in southern Lebanon.
Regev’s brother, Ofer Regev, bitterly denounced Hezbollah for refusing to say during the two years whether the two men were alive.
“Our enemy has been exposed as the complete opposite of us, a cruel mirror image of everything that is human and acceptable among human beings,” he said.
Earlier in the day, soldiers from Goldwasser’s reserve unit, who asked to be called up to duty for the day, carried his casket to the grave, lowering it into the ground in Nahariya.
His widow, Karnit, held on to her father-in-law as each wiped away tears.
The prisoner exchange with Hezbollah closed a painful chapter from Israel’s 2006 war against the militant group.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose handling of that war was widely criticized, did not attend either funeral. He was present at a ceremony Wednesday when the soldiers’ remains were returned.
In Lebanon, attention centered on Samir Kantar, who spent nearly three decades in an Israeli prison after being convicted of killing a father, his 4-year-old daughter and a police officer during a 1979 attack. He denied killing the little girl.
He and the four other freed militants visited the grave of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car-bomb blast in Syria in February. Hezbollah blamed Israel, which denied playing any role in his killing.
“We swear by God . . . to continue on your same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you,” Kantar said.
He referred to Mughniyeh’s “martyrdom,” saying, “This is our great wish. We envy you, and we will achieve it, God willing.”
