OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, September 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel
is to release about 400 Palestinian and Arab detainees next week as
part of a long-awaited prisoner exchange deal with the Lebanese
Hezbollah group, according to news reports Tuesday, September 23.
Citing
an "informed Palestinian source", Palestinian daily Al-Quds
said the German-mediated exchange would "probably" take
place after the end of Jewish New Year festivities this weekend.
Around
185 Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian prisoners would be released as part
of the deal while the rest would be Palestinian, said the report,
carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"All
the Palestinian factions have presented (to Hezbollah) lists with
names of prisoners they want to be released," the source added.
Barghuti
Controversy
According
to the report, Marwan Barghuti, the Secretary of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, and senior Hamas
official Sheikh Hassan Yussef, are among the names on the list.
However,
Israel's Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi denied Barghuti
would be part of any exchange deal.
"He
will stay in prison for dozens of years," he told the Israeli
public radio about Barghuti.
Palestinian
lawyer Fadwa, wife of Barghuti, told Al-Jazeera TV late Monday she has
not received any official confirmation on her husband’s imminent
release.
Citing
her own private channels, she underlined, however, that Barghuti will
be released as part of the swap.
The
Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam newspaper, however, said it was
"nearly certain" Barghuti and Yussef would be among those
released.
Barghuti,
44, seen by many as the inspiration behind Al-Aqsa Intifada that broke
out in September 2000, was arrested by the Israeli army in April 2002
and brought before an Israeli court for the first time last September.
Israel
accuses him of involvement in killing 26 Israelis and "heading a
terror organization" but his appearances in the Tel Aviv district
court have so far focused on legal technicalities. No evidence has yet
been produced against him.
Al-Ayyam,
citing Arab and Palestinian sources, said the exchange would take
place "in the coming days".
Issa
Qaraqa, who heads a Bethlehem-based prisoners club, told AFP that
Israel has pledged during negotiations not to re-arrest released
Palestinians over the same charges and not to expel them from the
occupied territories.
Hezbollah
Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Monday, September 22,
there was "great hope" of a deal "soon", while
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said last week he believed
Hezbollah was "serious" about reaching an agreement on
prisoners.
Israeli
sources said that reserve general Ilan Biran was due to hold talks in
Germany Tuesday with special mediator Ernst Urlau about the terms of
an eventual deal.
While
some Israeli commentators have welcomed the prospect of an impending
deal, others say it will only serve to bolster what they termed
"hardliners in the region".
"The
incipient prisoner swap deal ... will turn (Hezbollah leader)
Nasrallah into the most admired Arab leader in the region," Ben
Caspit of the Maariv daily wrote Tuesday.
"Abu
Mazen (Abbas) tried to make peace with us. That's the whole
difference."
On
August 25, Israel allowed repatriation of
in a surprise move that appeared to signal a breakthrough in the
thorny question of prisoners.
The
deal was the first tangible progress of the German efforts to
negotiate a deal since previous successful mediations in 1996 and 1998
led to a series of swaps.
In
October 2000, Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers - whom Israel
believes are dead - in a Lebanese border area, occupied by Israel.
They
also seized Elhanan Tannenbaum, a reservist colonel Hezbollah says was
an intelligence agent while Israel claims he is a
"businessman".
For
its part, Israel is said to be holding 16 Lebanese, including two
senior Islamic figures, though Lebanese media Monday published a list
of 19.
Hezbollah
was instrumental in the resistance fight that booted out in May 2000
Israeli occupation troop from southern Lebanon after 22 years of
occupation.
Israel
released about 350 Palestinian prisoners earlier this year in a move
designed to bolster the position of then Palestinian Premier Mahmud
Abbas.
However,
the figures fell much below Palestinians’ demands who were pushing
for the release of all their estimated 6,000 detainees.
It
led to criticism of Abbas' so-called "moderate approach" in
peace talks and was a factor in his eventual resignation earlier this
month.
