The exchange has produced anguished debates in Israel, with the government, the public and the families of the missing Israelis expressed mixed feelings.

To a degree, the anguished debate this week was overwrought.

It's an anguished debate because all the options are terrible.

Many of those anguished internal debates are now behind us.

There has been much anguished debate about the proposals to trim spending by £6.2 billion.

It decided after weeks of anguished debate during which powerful political groups, especially the major Shiite parties, lobbied the commission to include the expatriates.

Instead, they found themselves mired in an anguished internal debate over Israeli military tactics.

In the great Victorian novels, a failed marriage generates endless anguished debate.

When these marriages break down there is often an anguished debate about who the children will live with afterwards.