Red Cross arriving to facilitate prisoner exchange

Nine Red Cross trucks will enter Israel from Jordan today as part of the preparations for tomorrow's prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. The trucks will be used to transport the coffins of some 200 dead Lebanese and Palestinians whose bodies Israel is giving Hezbollah as part of the swap.

Most of the 200 died decades ago, but eight are Hezbollah members killed during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The exchange will reportedly take place at 9 A.M. tomorrow at Rosh Hanikra, on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Yael Segev-Eitan, the Red Cross spokeswoman in Israel, said that both sides had asked the organization to assist in the exchange. The trucks are coming from Jordan because that is where the Red Cross has its main logistical center for the region.

Red Cross employees will also conduct interviews today with the five live prisoners whom Israel will release tomorrow - four Hezbollah members captured during the 2006 war plus veteran terrorist Samir Kuntar - to ensure that they indeed wish to return to Lebanon.

In Lebanon, preparations were in full swing yesterday for the ceremonies the state will hold in honor of the returning prisoners. However, Israel will formally hand over the prisoners to Hezbollah officials, rather than Lebanese government representatives. The coffins will be handed over to the Islamic Health Authority, which is Hezbollah's health organization.

Immediately after the prisoners cross the border, they will change into Hezbollah uniforms, according to a report published yesterday in the Hezbollah-affiliated daily Al-Akhbar. According to the Lebanese daily As-Safir, the five released prisoners will then be flown to Beirut, where they will be greeted by Lebanon's president, prime minister and parliament speaker in an official ceremony.

However, another media report said the matter of the flight is still not settled, since flying them would disrupt the celebrations planned along the entire route from the border to Beirut.

The coffins will be driven to Beirut in a convoy in any event.

In addition to Beirut, major receptions for the live prisoners and memorial ceremonies for the dead are planned in the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon.

In the afternoon, another major ceremony will be held in Dahiya, the Beirut neighborhood that serves as Hezbollah's stronghold. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will speak at this event, but it is not clear whether he will appear in person or speak by video conferencing, as he usually does.

Lebanon's Hezbollah-affiliated youth and sport minister, Talal Arslan, announced on Sunday that all the youth of Lebanon's Druze community would participate in the welcoming ceremonies for Kuntar, whom he termed a "national symbol."

Kuntar, who like Arslan is Druze, was sentenced to four life terms in Israel for killing four people in a cross-border attack on Nahariya in 1979.