Families of Captives Fear 3 Men Will Be Forgotten

Beni Regev, left, and his brother Ofer look at a photo of their brother Eldad, an army reserve soldier taken captive by Hezbollah guerrillas a week ago. (By Samuel Sockol -- The Washington Post)

KIRYAT MOTZKIN, Israel, July 19 -- Everywhere in the cluttered, third-floor apartment he has shared with his father in this suburb of Haifa, there are reminders of Eldad Regev.

A dog-eared travel guide from a recent trip to Thailand. An army sticker on the wall above his still-unmade bed: "Reserves, the best friends you have." And an album of childhood photos the family compiled in recent days, while they wondered if they'd ever see him again.

"I think of Eldad hundreds of times every day," Beni Regev, 35, said of his brother, an Israeli soldier taken captive by Hezbollah fighters near the Lebanese border on July 12. "He is with us in our thoughts, constantly."

It was the capture of Regev, 26, and platoon-mate Ehud Goldwasser, 31 -- and the seizure of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, near the Gaza Strip last month -- that touched off the wide new war raging in the Middle East. As the days have passed, the men's families have grown concerned that the increasing focus on geopolitics and the destruction of Hezbollah has overshadowed the plight of their loved ones, they said in interviews Tuesday.

After keeping a relatively low public profile, they have made impassioned pleas for information and for the government to negotiate with the captors.

"I don't want to get too much into politics, but people need to remember the reason all this began," said Ofer Regev, 34, another brother of Eldad, referring to Hezbollah's seizure of the soldiers. "It is a moral question, and yet, where is the international community? They are not doing enough."

"I want to believe what they say, that he is the main concern. I want to," said Shlomo Goldwasser, father of Ehud Goldwasser, slipping frequently into past tense when discussing his son, before correcting himself firmly. "Udi was -- is -- Udi is a very strong person. Mentally strong. So I know he is holding up. But he is a card in this game."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday in his first formal address since the crisis began that the soldiers' release was a precondition for halting the offensive and that he keeps photographs of the three in his office. "Many times during the day I look in their faces, into their eyes, and embrace them in my heart. I do not forget them for one minute," Olmert said.

But the week-long offensive in southern Lebanon has raised concerns among some family members. "It seems that it complicates our situation, as most of the attention is on fighting," said Noam Shalit, father of Gilad, the corporal captured outside Gaza. The father runs a bed-and-breakfast in the manicured hilltop community of Mitzpeh Hila, less than 20 miles from Lebanon.

Beni Regev said he believed the Israeli government and army were doing "everything they possibly can, as they should," to free his brother. But asked whether they should consider a swap for detainees held by Israel, as some Israelis have suggested, he did not hesitate. "Everything should be on the table," he said. "Let's talk."

While not ruling out such an exchange, Olmert appeared to suggest Monday that Israel would make no concessions. "We will do everything and make every effort to bring them home," he said in his speech. "We will do this, but not in a pattern that will encourage more kidnappings."

Eldad Regev's father and brothers described the reservist soldier as laid-back but patriotic, with a wide circle of friends. When they heard that the pre-law student at Bar Ilan University -- called to active duty a month ago -- had been captured when his border patrol was ambushed, his brothers moved back to the apartment where they were raised, transforming it into part listening post, part vigil site.