Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah alive - report

JERUSALEM, Jan 12 (Reuters) Two Israeli soldiers who were captured by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in a cross-border raid in July, triggering 34 days of war, are alive, former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel was quoted as saying today.

Israel's Maariv newspaper quoted Gemayel and a second Lebanese politician in interviews as saying the two soldiers were alive but they offered no other details. They said they hoped the soldiers would return home in good health.

The comments appeared to run counter to an internal Israeli probe which concluded that the two soldiers -- Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev -- were seriously wounded during their capture and at least one of them could now be dead.

Around 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the war, which started when Hezbollah captured the two Israeli soldiers in the July 12 cross-border raid.

The war ended with a truce on August 14.

Hezbollah has ignored a UN call for the immediate release of the soldiers and said Israel must first free Lebanese prisoners and possibly others held in its jails.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that there would be no trade on Hezbollah's terms if it did not prove Goldwasser and Regev were still alive.

Gemayel spoke to Israel's Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth newspapers on the sidelines of a conference in Madrid on stalled Middle East peacemaking.

Gemayel told Yedioth that he hoped a peace deal between Israel and Lebanon would be possible in the future.

''Peace with Israel? I wish. I hope. But this is not the time from our point of view or from your point of view,'' he said.

REUTERS PDM DS1415