Israel signs prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah

Israel has signed an agreement to swap prisoners with the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, according to a statement today.

The statement said the deal was signed “in the presence of a UN representative”.

The Israelis said implementation of the deal depends on carrying out further steps, but did not say what they are.

Israel approved the swap on June 29. Israel will hand over Samir Kantar, serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel’s north, as well as four Hezbollah prisoners and dozens of bodies of fighters.

In return, Israel is to receive two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid that set off a fierce 34-day war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the two soldiers dead before his Cabinet approved the deal, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has not allowed Red Cross visits or given any sign that the two are alive, called the declaration “speculation”.

Israeli military officials said the exchange is likely to take place between July 13-16.

Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for one of the most gruesome attacks in Israeli history. He was convicted of shooting a policeman and then killing an Israeli man in front of his four-year-old daughter before beating her to death. Kantar denies killing the girl.

Today the family of the police officer appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court to block the exchange.

“Don’t release Kantar. He is a despicable mass murderer, and Israel will be sorry in the end,” the murdered policeman’s daughter, Keren Shahar, told reporters.

The court is not expected to intervene in the deal.

Earlier, the military confirmed that the process of exhuming bodies has begun at the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants, not far from the Israel-Lebanon border.

It was declared a closed military zone to prevent reporters from witnessing the process.

The military rabbinate called up reservists to help with identifying the bodies before the exchange.