After almost three and a half years of negotiations, Israel and the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah will conclude a prisoner swap as early as January 29. This is of course if nothing changes in the next few days, which is possible in this kind of deal.
The exchange includes:
• Hizbullah commits to release the Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum and the three Israeli soldiers captured in the year 2000.
Israel commits to:
• Release 23 Lebanese citizens, including Sheikh ‘Ubeid and Mu’stafa Dirani.
• Release five Syrians, three Moroccans, and one Libyan.
• Release 400 Palestinians to their homes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
• Release the German citizen Steven Smirek, who was recruited by Hizbullah to perform an attack against Israel.
• Provide information about 24 Lebanese MIAs.
• Deliver to Lebanon the bodies of 59 Lebanese citizens who were killed in action against Israel.
• Provide maps of mine fields in South Lebanon left there by the Israeli army and the South Lebanese Army after their withdrawal in 2000.
• Lebanese citizen Samir Quntar will be released from an Israeli prison as soon as the negotiations in his case are concluded successfully. Quntar will be released as soon as concrete evidence about missing Israeli airman Ron Arad is provided.
• All parties concerned will immediately establish committees, which will uncover the fate of Ron Arad and four Lebanese diplomats missing since 1982.
• In return for the clarification of the fate of Ron Arad and his release, more prisoners will be freed from Israeli prisons on the basis of a negotiation with no preconditions set by either side.