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Hezbollah guerilla Hassan Naim Aqil (L) and Israeli civilian Gabriel Dwait. (GPO / Reproduction)
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Last update - 20:39 16/10/2007
Israel frees one of 5 Hezbollah guerillas, two bodies of militants
By Amos Harel, Barak Ravid and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents

Israel on Monday released one of five Hezbollah guerillas in its custody, who suffers a mental illness. The bodies of two others were also repatriated, in exchange for the body of a drowned Israeli civilian which was swept into Lebanon.

The Lebanese daily Al-Akbar reported on Tuesday that as part of a 2004 deal, Hezbollah gave Israel documents written in Arad's handwriting, exactly 21 years after the navigator's fighter jet went down over Lebanon on October 16, 1986

The Lebanese paper did not specify when the documents with Arad's handwriting were written, but reported that they apparently dated to when the abducted Israel Air Force navigator was held in Lebanon.
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Sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said Monday's swap deal also included information from Hezbollah regarding a separate issue, and that the information would be examined in the coming days. They have not confirmed Al-Akhbar's report on Ron Arad.

Chen Arad, brother of missing pilot Ron Arad said Tuesday he would not respond to Lebanese newspaper reports that Hezbollah gave Israel information on his brother until he himself returns to Israel from Germany.

Chen Arad and Ron's daughter Yuval are currently in Germany lobbying to make the release of Iranian prisoner Kazem Darabi contingent on information on Arad.

In a statement on its television station Al-Manar, Hezbollah confirmed that it had transferred information "related to issues of mutual interest, with the intention of achieving progress on them."

"Hezbollah hopes that this goodwill will produce long-awaited progress toward resolving the cases of all prisoners," the statement said.

A statement released by the Prime Minister's Office said the swap was "an additional step in the framework of the negotiations to return abducted soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser."

"Israel expects that this evening's significant step will serve to hasten the processes that have been underway for over a year," the statement said.

The Israeli whose body was returned was named as Gabriel Dwait, a 27-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on January 20, 2005.

Several months ago, Hezbollah began hinting that it held Dwait's body. Israeli authorities at the time were unaware of the remains of another Israeli in Lebanon. The Abu Kabir Forensics Institute identified Dwait's body at the border at Rosh Hanikra.

The Lebanese prisoner was identified as 50-year-old Hassan Naim Aqil, a former Hezbollah guerilla who did not fight in the Second Lebanon War. Israel decided to release Aqil, one of Hezbollah men it holds, due to his age and poor health. The bodies of the militants were identified as Ali Wizwaz and Mohammed Damasqiah.

According to a Lebanese security source, the Hezbollah militants were killed in the Second Lebanon War.

"As a goodwill gesture, there will be a swap of a prisoner and the bodies of two Hezbollah fighters for the remains of an Israeli who was not a soldier," the source said.

Israeli security sources also called the exchange a confidence-building measure, aimed at improving the atmosphere ahead or a future prisoner exchange with Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have in recent months been conducting negotiations aimed at securing the release of captured Israel Defense Forces reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser, whose abduction on July 12, 2006 sparked the Second Lebanon War.

The negotiations are being conducted through United Nations-appointed German mediator Ernst Uhrlau. The major sticking point currently in the talks is Hezbollah's demand that Israel first release a large number of prisoners in exchange for information on the two trips, while Israel is insisting that the exchange be carried out in a single stage.

Shlomo Goldwasser, the father of Ehud Goldwasser, told Haaretz that he was aware of the developments, stressing that they "are not directly connected to our son and the abducted soldier Eldad Regev."

A large Hezbollah convoy, with an ambulance carrying the remains of the Israeli, arrived at Naqoura town on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel at around 5 P.M. to complete the swap, sources and witnesses said.

The exchange was not covered live by local media, as the military censor had imposed a day-long blackout.

"I'm very proud of my son who gave up his life for his nation," Hussein Wizwaz, father of one of the two militants, told Reuters as he and relatives of other Lebanese prisoners waited at the border.

An official of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut said the organization acted as an intermediary in the exchange.

Lebanese security officials with knowledge of the exchange said the Lebanese prisoner was later handed over and the swap completed about three hours after it began. They requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported Friday that a prisoner exchange between the sides could be carried out in the near future, given the release of an Iranian prisoner held in Germany last week.

Last week, Germany announced its intention to free Kazem Darabi, an Iranian who was to be released in exchange for information on Arad under the terms of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004.

Several IDF soldiers have been missing in Lebanon since the 1980s and are presumed dead. But there had been no previous report that an Israeli civilian was missing.

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      1.   What`s the name of the Israeli? 19:07  |  Inquirer 15/10/07
      2.   prisoner 19:13  |  jeff 15/10/07
      3.   Israeli are idiots if they have confidence in Hizbollah 19:14  |  Absolute Sweden 15/10/07
      4.   Nonsense!!!! release Goldwasser & Regev!!!! 19:16  |  lilly 15/10/07
      5.   Ghoulish 19:18  |  Mark 15/10/07
      6.   HOW and WHY was ISRAEL HOLDING A MENTALLY ILL MAN?????? 19:19  |  Eric 15/10/07
      7.   Fair exchange: Dead for dead 19:24  |  Tosefta 15/10/07
      8.   Inquirer 19:26  |  Steve 15/10/07
      9.   #6: GROW A BRAIN TWIT! 19:27  |  Golan 15/10/07
      10.   Get it right Ha´aretz! 19:34  |  Hard Talk 15/10/07
      11.   Israel said they didn`t hold any Lebanese 19:35  |  Peter SM 15/10/07
      12.   To #1: "Gabriel Dwait" 19:35  |  Global Citizen 15/10/07
      13.   WHY is Israel holding Mentally Ill as prisoners??? 19:38  |  POP 15/10/07
      14.   Israel imrprisons the mentally ill: How barbaric 19:41  |  peacelover 15/10/07
      15.   Aqil is not on the Red Cross 19:41  |  Peter SM 15/10/07
      16.   #9 Why should #6 grow a brain 19:45  |  Murray of Montreal 15/10/07
      17.   #16 Murray of montreal 19:53  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/10/07
      18.   The people of Israel are weak 20:18  |  Dan 15/10/07
      19.   mentally ill 20:23  |  objective 15/10/07
      20.   Peter SM # 11 20:26  |  ChanahS 15/10/07
      21.   To#6 20:27  |  Dvaid 15/10/07
      22.   get rid of Olmert NOW 20:30  |  aj 15/10/07
      23.   to:#16 20:32  |  David 15/10/07
      24.   #18 Dan of New York 20:33  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/10/07
      25.   to #16, Imprisonment of Mentally Disabled 20:35  |  Todd 15/10/07
      26.   Mentally Ill Guerella 20:41  |  Niss 15/10/07
      27.   Confidence in Hizballah?!! 20:43  |  Shlomo from Tel Aviv 15/10/07
      28.   Negotiate With Anyone But Syria 20:46  |  Yosemite 15/10/07
      29.   3 for 1 20:47  |  Gershon Reed 15/10/07
      30.   Mentally Disabled??? 20:47  |  danite 15/10/07
      31.   #27 Shlomo of Tel Aviv 20:52  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/10/07
      32.   Perhaps they just prefer to do things the hard way 20:54  |  Natallie Durson 15/10/07
      33.   Yosemite even further away than Dan 20:56  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/10/07
      34.   #20 Chanah S 20:59  |  Peter SM 15/10/07
      35.   #6 Eric - the answer is very simple 21:06  |  Yonatan 15/10/07
      36.   #29 Israel just kidnaps and kills more 21:12  |  Tim 15/10/07
      37.   Prisoner swap 21:14  |  Juan 15/10/07
      38.   good `ol natalie 21:15  |  mb 15/10/07
      39.   doris dutch now peacelover? 21:24  |  I know 15/10/07
      40.   The price for child murderer killer Samir Kuntar 21:34  |  Chick 15/10/07
      41.   WE NEED DAN HALOUTZ 21:36  |  serge 15/10/07
      42.   Murray of Montreal: they are all mentally ill ! 21:45  |  Hard Talk 15/10/07
      43.   Everyday Israelis prove they are barbaric 21:47  |  Noora 15/10/07
      44.   # 6 mentaly ill 21:50  |  Abu Yusuf 15/10/07
      45.   what a disgrace for humanity 22:18  |  Sarah 15/10/07
      46.   what is the big deal with arad ? 22:45  |  mehmet 15/10/07
      47.   #6: mental illness doesn`t make a POW free 22:51  |  Paul Freedman 15/10/07
      48.   Tossi - I would argue with you, but... 22:51  |  Jewboy 15/10/07
      49.   Chris you must be the new Messiah 22:52  |  Aby 15/10/07
      50.   .......... 22:59  |  jew 15/10/07
      51.   #24 23:04  |  jews 15/10/07
      52.   Great to see some developments 23:08  |  Outsider 15/10/07
      53.   # 32 Yep, Fatmah, Israel is slowly lerning... 23:17  |  Misha 15/10/07
      54.   # 43 Noora, tell your parents that you are an idiot... 23:30  |  Misha 15/10/07
      55.   Israel Releases Lebanese prisoner? 23:32  |  Neil 15/10/07
      56.   Guerilla ??? 23:33  |  Yehuda 15/10/07
      57.   Mentally Ill Posters #6, #13, #14, etc... 23:56  |  Bill 15/10/07
      58.   How did the body of an Israeli civilian 00:04  |  MR 16/10/07
      59.   # 35 All arab presoners before release... 00:05  |  Misha 16/10/07
      60.   This puts the lie 00:08  |  Steve 16/10/07
      61.   Chris Linthwaite 00:18  |  danite 16/10/07
      62.   Noora still a long way to go to equal your barbarism. 00:25  |  Amused 16/10/07
      63.   Israel shoud be ashamed of itself 00:38  |  Don Dararri 16/10/07
      64.   #43 Bahrain should worry about Iran; not Israel 00:38  |  Semsem 16/10/07
      65.   #16 and #17 like two peas in a pod 00:40  |  Golan 16/10/07
      66.   # 40 Killing children IS WRONG 01:01  |  John 16/10/07
      67.   #6 Eric POP. The Mentally ill in Israeli Prisons. 01:01  |  Maureen Ann 16/10/07
      68.   Peter SM #11 01:06  |  Dakkar 16/10/07
      69.   to absolute sweeden 01:09  |  dr carl 16/10/07
      70.   to#19 ojective 01:27  |  sam 16/10/07
      71.   #1 Inquirer - read the article it said who he was 01:47  |  * BEN JABO 16/10/07
      72.   jew ... arab 01:53  |  jj0 16/10/07
      73.   BUT WE DONT DEAL WITH TERRORIST 01:53  |  THINKING 16/10/07
      74.   re: Chris Linthwaite 02:01  |  Efox 16/10/07
      75.   re: objective 02:04  |  Efox 16/10/07
      76.   #58 John 02:05  |  * BEN JABO 16/10/07
      77.   Dan, NY #24 02:28  |  Dakkar 16/10/07
      78.   Chris Linthwaite again #31 02:35  |  Dakkar 16/10/07