Two Israeli soldiers whose bodies were returned home two years after being captured by Hezbollah were to be buried on Thursday, as it emerged that they probably died when they were ambushed.

Their capture in a 12 July, 2006 cross-border raid sparked a devastating 34-day war in which Israel failed in one of its key objectives, which was to recover them.

From that day until Wednesday, when their coffins were brought to the border for exchange, the Lebanese militant group never revealed whether they were alive or dead.

But press reports said the army now believed that they were both killed in the ambush in which they were taken from their burning Humvee, or that one may have died shortly afterwards.

The Jerusalem Post quoted officials as saying they both died in the ambush. One of the soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser, suffered a lethal wound to the chest from a rocket-propelled grenade. His comrade, Eldad Regev, appeared to have been shot in the head, perhaps as he attempted to escape the burning vehicle.

Haaretz said the two were killed during the ambush, or died shortly afterwards. It said Goldwasser took most of the impact from the RPG, and that Regev was probably also hit, before being shot at close-range when the attackers reached the vehicle.

Yediot Aharonot said forensic pathologists had difficulty reaching their conclusions because the bodies had not been refrigerated.

Goldwasser's funeral was to be held at 10am (0700 GMT) at the military cemetery in his hometown of Nahariya, while Regev was to be buried at 2pm in the military section of Haifa cemetery.

The two reserve soldiers were handed over to Israel on Wednesday as part of a swap deal in which the Jewish state freed four Hezbollah fighters captured during the 2006 war, a convicted triple murderer and the remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed over the years.

AFP