Beirut - Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israel made
'initial steps' towards a larger prisoner swap that will include the
two Israeli soldiers snatched by the militant Shiite group in July
2006, a source close to the negotiations told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
dpa in Beirut.
Hezbollah released the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the
2006 war in Lebanon to the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) on Sunday in exchange for a Lebanese detainee.
'Hezbollah has surprised the Israelis by handing over the remains
on Sunday,' the source, who requested anonymity, said.
'This in the negotiations is called a good will gesture, which
will pave the way for a bigger swap and also to ease the usually
tense negotiations.'
Officials in Israel were quoted as saying Hezbollah's decision to
hand over the remains 'was unilateral and was not part of a wider
deal.'
Hezbollah mediator Wafik Safa confirmed handing over the Israeli
soldiers' remains to reporters at Naqoura crossing in southern
Lebanon shortly after a Hezbollah spy, Nassim Nisr, was released and
returned to Lebanon.
Nisr recently finished serving a six-year sentence for espionage.
Israeli officials have denied his release is part of a reported deal.
A Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Kawook,
told dpa that 'the movement's goal is to release all Lebanese
prisoners and this is our promise for our people and the prisoners.'
'We are people who do not leave our prisoners in jail, especially
Israeli jails,' Kawook said.
Nisr, born in 1968 to an Israeli Jewish mother and a Lebanese
Muslim father, held Israeli citizenship at the time of his arrest in
2002. He was sentenced to six years in prison for collaborating with
Hezbollah.
Nisr left Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982 and joined
his mother's family in Israel, where he settled near Tel Aviv.
His release is being seen as part of a broader prisoner exchange
deal between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, which captured two
Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, 2006.
Israeli army radio reported on Monday that Israel was prepared to
release five Lebanese prisoners and return the bodies of 10 Hezbollah
fighters in exchange for the two servicemen.
Hezbollah organized two big ceremonies for Nisr, one upon his
arrival at the Naqoura crossing and the second in his hometown of
Bazouriyeh in southern Lebanon.
'I have been waiting for my son for years. Now he is here and I am
very happy,' Nisr's mother, Valentine, told dpa.
Yellow Hezbollah flags covered the streets, while his picture and
others of Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasarallah were placed on
balconies and electricity poles across the area.
Nisr was saluted by Hezbollah militants and people threw rose
petals and rice on him. He thanked Nasrallah and 'the Lebanese
resistance' for working on his release.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 33-day war in 2006
during which Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in an unsuccessful
attempt to rescue the soldiers.
Nasrallah said last week that all Lebanese prisoners would be home
soon, including the longest-held Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar.
Kuntar has been in prison since 1979, when he headed a terrorist
attack in Nahariya that led to the death of a policeman as well as a
man and his two young daughters.
The release of Nisr comes amid conflicting reports about whether a
deal was taking shape in which the two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev
and Ehud Goldwasser, were to be exchanged in return for Kuntar, four
Hezbollah prisoners and the remains of 10 Hezbollah men killed in
clashes in 2006.
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Friday cited a German mediator
as saying he assumed that the two soldiers were no longer alive.
The mediator, Gerhard Konrad, has told the Israeli government that
he believed Hezbollah was not holding any live soldiers, only dead
bodies, the newspaper said.
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