J'lem sources say Israel and Hezbollah strike prisoner swap deal
By <a href="mailto:stern@haaretz.co.il" class="tUbl2">Yoav Stern</a> and <a href="mailto:ymelman@haaretz.co.il" class="tUbl2">Yossi Melman</a>, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Israeli sources said Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had struck a deal securing the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanon-based militant group in a July 2006 cross border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War.
The sources explained that in exchange for the captives, Israel would release Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese militant currently imprisoned in Israel for the 1979 murder of a Nahariyah family, an Israeli citizen jailed for espionage on Hezbollah's behalf and four other Hezbollah men captured by Israel during the 2006 war. The deal reportedly will also include the return of the remains of ten Lebanese, currently held by Israel, to Hezbollah.
Advertisement
Earlier Monday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hinted that a prisoner swap would soon be completed, telling supporters in Beirut that Kuntar would soon be freed.
The sources refrained from commenting on whether the Israeli captives, Ehud Golwasser and Eldad Regev, were alive. However, a medical report encompassing evidence from the site of the kidnapping near Israel's northern border maintained that at both Israel Defense Forces soldiers were seriously hurt at the scene.
The sources added that the fact that the deal did not include any Palestinian prisoners held in Israel may be indicative of the Israeli captives' condition.
The timetable for the exchange of prisoners is not yet clear.
Meanwhile Monday, another source involved in the negotiations over the release of the two captive soldiers said "a prisoner exchange deal with Hezbollah is yet far off."
According to the source, Israel has not received any information in recent days to indicate that a deal is in fact within reach. The source added that the German mediator who has been working on the deal was not in Beirut last week, in contrast with media reports to the contrary.
"Nasrallah doesn't coordinate his speeches with Israel," the source stressed, saying that the fact that Nasrallah hinted in his speech Monday that Samir Kuntar would soon be released from the Israeli prison in which he has been held since 1979, was not a new revelation. As long as four years ago, Nasrallah proclaimed that Samir Kuntar would be released in the second part of the exchange deal that saw another Israeli Hezbollah captive, Elhanan Tenenbaum, returned to Israel. However, after Nasrallah failed to fulfill his part of the deal - to provide Israel with information regarding the missing navigator Ron Arad - Israel responded in kind and refused to release Kuntar.
The source stressed that one may take solace in the fact that Nasrallah, in the sole sentence in which he referred to any prisoner exchange, did not mention the release of Palestinian prisoners, as he has consistently done in the past. Nasrallah's demand for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel has, in the past, been the main obstacle standing in the way of an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.
As was reported in Haaretz last week, Israel has made it clear, via the German mediator, that it would not release Palestinian prisoners in an exchange with a Lebanese organization. Israel explained that the negotiations surrounding the prisoner exchange was underway within the framework of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, the resolution that ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah, which applies only to Lebanon, and not to the Palestinian Authority.
The source also said that Israel cannot expect, in light of Hezbollah's past behavior, for specific information about whether the prisoners are alive prior to the execution of the exchange. "Unfortunately," he said, "we will know at the very last minute whether the soldiers are returned alive or in coffins."
Nasrallah: Samir Kuntar will soon be released Earlier Monday, Nasrallah addressed thousands of his supporters in a speech broadcast on a screen in the Lebanese capital. "Samir Kuntar and his brothers will soon be among you," Nasrallah told the crowd. The Hezbollah leader rarely appears in public, fearing Israeli assassination.
"Releasing the prisoners is our duty and it is our holy mission," Nasrallah said without providing any further details.
"The family has been informed of some positive developments within
the next 30 days regarding my brother as well as all the other
prisoners held in Israel," Bassam Kuntar, Samir's brother, told the German news agency DPA on Monday.
The speech Monday was to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000.
"Just as we fought in the July war [Second Lebanon War], so we will fight in the next war," Nasrallah said, referring to the Israeli withdrawal. "The Gaza Strip is fighting Israel just as we did. The strategy of resistance succeeded in Lebanon and will succeed in Gaza too."
'Real progress in talks' Lebanese political sources also said Monday that major progress has been made in the United Nations-sponsored indirect talks between Israel and Hezbollah over the release of the two soldiers.
The sources said a German mediator held talks with Hezbollah officials in Beirut last week and a breakthrough appeared close. The Lebanese sources gave no further details.
A Western diplomatic source close to the negotiations told DPA in Beirut that, "All I can say is that the German mediators have been successful
in removing some of the prevailing obstacles, which registered some
progress in the file on prisoners."
"I think some of the Hezbollah leaders will make it official and
will speak about this progress," said the diplomat.
The UN-appointed German negotiator began his mission in late 2006. Very little has been heard on the talks since.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
