400 Arab prisoners set to go free in Hezbollah deal

Israel has agreed in principle to release about 400 Arab prisoners, including at least 200 Palestinians, in a swap with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a Palestinian source said today.

Marwan Barghouti, the most senior Palestinian held by Israel, tops the list of those Hezbollah seeks to free, the source said in Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s aides declined comment.

As part of the deal, Hezbollah would release Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers, all kidnapped by guerrillas in 2000.

Israel, in turn, would free Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, two Lebanese guerrilla leaders it snatched in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a vain bid to win the release of Israeli airman Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Barghouti, on trial in Israel for alleged involvement in attacks that killed 26 Israelis, is increasingly seen as a possible successor to Arafat.

In all, Israel agreed in principle to free about 400 Arab prisoners, sources said. In addition to at least 200 Palestinians, prisoners from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon would also be released.

In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his group would try to find out more about the fate of Arad. Israel believes that the navigator was at one point held by Hezbollah, but might have been sold to Iranian Revolutionary Guards operating in Lebanon and was perhaps moved to Iran.

“We are interested in uncovering Arad’s fate,” he said. “We have many motives and reasons which prompt us to continue searching for him. Hezbollah will exert its utmost efforts to obtain information about Arad’s fate.”