By Aluf Benn, Gideon Alon, Anshel Pfeffer and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service
Hezbollah sources have said that a prisoner exchange deal with Israel, narrowly approved in a Sunday Israeli cabinet meeting, would not be carried out without the release of Samir Kuntar, jailed in Israel since a 1979 attack in the northern Israeli town of Nahariyah, in which he entered an apartment and murdered three family members and an Israeli police officer, Army Radio reported Monday.
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Senior Israeli officials are adamant that Kuntar will remain imprisoned in Israel. Hezbollah officials have been quoted as maintaining that the organization has a letter from Israel which certifies that Kuntar would be part of a future prisoner release.
Bassam Kuntar, the brother of Samir Kuntar told Arab media outlet Al Jazeera that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah promised him the deal would not be executed without his brother's release, Army Radio reported.
"Nasrallah was very clear when he said there would be no exchange without [the release of] Samir, and Nasrallah never reneges on his promises," Kuntar was quoted on the Al Jazeera website.
The announcement came after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon succeeded Sunday in securing a cabinet majority to support the proposed prisoner exchange, but the Lebanese group has yet to release an official reaction to the Israeli cabinet's decision.
The cabinet heard Sunday that Kuntar would not be included in the exchange deal.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that Kuntar would not be includeded in the deal. "Israel has red lines too," the minister said.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced Saturday night that the group would reject any prisoner swap deal with Israel that didn't lead to the release of all Lebanese detainees, including Samir Kuntar.
The families of the three kidnapped soldiers expressed satisfaction at the decision, while the Arad family's attorney called the vote politically-motivated.
Of the 23 members of the cabinet, 12 voted in favor of the deal, which aims to secure the return of businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of Israeli soldiers Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Suwad, who were kidnapped from near the Israel-Lebanon border in October 2000. Israel is expected to free 20 Lebanese prisoners and some 400 Palestinians in exchange.
In addition to Sharon, those voting in favor included Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Minister without Portfolio Gideon Ezra, Minister at the treasury Meir Sheetrit, Health Minister Dan Naveh of the Likud, and Environment Minister Yehudit Naot, Science and Technology Minister Eliezer Sandberg and National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky from Shinui.
Ahead of the vote, Sharon said cabinet support for the deal would save a living Israeli citizen, a reference to Tannenbaum. Failure to approve the deal, he said, would mean "leaving a Jewish, Israeli citizen in the hands of Hezbollah, thereby bringing about his death."
The ministers who voted against the deal were, from the Likud Party: Education, Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, Minister for the Diaspora Natan Sharansky, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Yisrael Katz, Immigrant Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni and Minister without portfolio Uzi Landau. From the National Union Party: Tourism Minister Binyamin Elon and Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman. From the National Religious Party: Housing and Construction Minister Effi Eitam and Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev. From the Shinui Party: Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Justice Minister Yosef Lapid.
Netanyahu agreed to vote in favor of the deal after the cabinet agreed to add into the wording of the proposal that "no prisoner with blood on their hands" will be released as part of the deal.
Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported Sunday that the German team which has mediated the deal visited Beirut over the weekend to finalize details. The report said that the agreement between Israel and Hezbollah could be carried out Thursday, but only if both sides agree to the other's conditions.
The revised Israeli cabinet proposal included a section specifying that Israel will take additional steps regarding Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, who has not been heard from since he bailed out of his plane over Lebanon in 1986.
Such steps are to be taken under the guidance of Sharon, Mofaz and top prisoner negotiator Ilan Biran.
The Arad family has been lobbying against the inclusion of Lebanese militant Mustafa Dirani in the deal, arguing that he was captured by Israel in 1994 specifically as a bargaining chip for information on the missing navigator. Dirani is believed to have been Arad's captor
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