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Israel, Hezbollah Complete Prisoner Swap

Posted on: Friday, 30 January 2004, 06:00 CST

The remains of 59 guerrillas were returned to Lebanon on Friday at a crossing on the Lebanese-Israeli border, completing a German-mediated prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which received the bodies from Israel on Thursday, delivered them across a buffer zone.

An official ceremony was to be held in this Lebanese border town on the Mediterranean, which also is headquarters to a U.N. peacekeeping force. Afterward, the remains will be driven to Beirut, 60 miles to the north, making stops along the way.

The caskets will be transferred from the ICRC trucks to special trucks with clear glass covers. The bodies will be assembled in Beirut for identification before families can claim them for burial in their hometowns.

In the swap Thursday, Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza and 30 other Arabs, including 23 Lebanese, most of whom were flown to Lebanon. Israel received in return a kidnapped businessman and the remains of three soldiers killed in a 2000 ambush along the border in southern Lebanon.

At the same time Thursday, Israel handed over the remains of the Arab guerrillas to the ICRC.

The complex swap came amid new threats from guerrillas to capture more Israeli and warnings from Israel of dire consequences if its soldiers are targeted again.

The standing of Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terror group, in the region is expected to be boosted because of its success in freeing Palestinian prisoners and extracting concessions from Israel.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday warned that his guerrillas could again try to capture Israelis to trade them for three Lebanese prisoners he said were held by Israel.

Nasrallah stood with prisoners at a mass homecoming rally near a huge poster celebrating the guerrilla ambush in 2000 in which the three Israeli soldiers were killed.

Nasrallah said that although Hezbollah and Israel are enemies, he respects Israel's efforts to gain the freedom of prisoners and recover the remains of its soldiers.

"I respect this enemy which cares for its prisoners and the bodies of its soldiers and works days and night for them," he said.

In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke at a memorial service in front of three caskets, covered with Israeli flags, and a woman sang mournfully in Hebrew. But he had a stern warning to Hezbollah against trying to seize Israeli soldiers.

"Israel will not allow any enemy or terror group to turn kidnapping and ransom into a system. There are means we have not yet used. If, heaven forbid, the circumstances are changed, we will not hesitate to use them," he said. He did not elaborate on the means.

The prisoner swap was carried out in a German military airport after separate planes landed from Lebanon and Israel carrying the Israelis and the Lebanese prisoners. Israel released the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories.

The sides are to launch a second stage of the German-brokered deal, with Israel to receive concrete information within three months on missing airman Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. In exchange, Israel would release Samir Kantar, a Lebanese militant who has been in an Israeli prison since 1979 for killing three Israelis.

Kantar's younger brother, Bassam Kantar, 26, said Thursday that a Palestinian lawyer visited Samir in his Israeli prison on Wednesday and was impressed by his mood.

"He is aware of all the details (of the prisoner exchange)," Bassam said of his brother. "It is clear from what we were told that he is very optimistic. He is all smiles and said goodbye to five of his colleagues who were freed."

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