The wife of one of two Israeli soldiers captured by the Hezbollah militia last month pleaded Tuesday for their safe return as well as an end to the ensuing armed conflict.
"We came here to appeal for Ehud's and his colleague's release and we came to bring their story to the whole world," Kalnit Goldwasser, 30, said in central London on her tour of Europe and the United States.
A spiralling conflict erupted after Hezbollah abducted Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and fellow reservist Elad Regev, 26, during clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border on July 12 that also left eight Israeli soldiers dead.
"We are trying to look for people who know people, who know people who eventually might know Hezbollah and try to convince them to bring us a sign Ehud is still alive, because until now we don't have any sign or any proof he's alive," Goldwasser said.
"I really, really want the killing to be stopped.
"No one in the whole world wants their neighbour or son or husband to be killed."
Goldwasser, who like her husband is studying for a master's degree in environmental engineering at the Israeli Institute of Technology, said she last saw him on July 8 and spoke to him the night before he was due to return home after a month of military service.
She was joined in London by her mother and her husband's father Shlomo.
He told the audience: "We are not happy about all the deaths, we are not happy when we hear about casualties, about children, women and civilians dying — it scratches our hearts, both for Israeli and Lebanese deaths.
"We are not politicians and we didn't come here to give a political message.
"We are family and the end for us will be when we have Ehud back," the 59-year-old said.
Israel approved the expansion of its ground offensive in Lebanon on Tuesday, dashing hopes of an early end to the three-week old conflict despite a renewed international push for a ceasefire.
The conflict has killed well over 500 people in Lebanon and Israel.
