Israel frees five prisoners in swap deal

Five Palestinian prisoners were released today as part of Israel’s prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah.

A Prisons Service statement said the five left their jail in central Israel today, bound for the West Bank, and later arrived in the town of Tulkarem.

All five are teenagers who were serving short sentences for throwing stones and were due to be freed next year, according to information published on the Prisons Authority website.

The release follows last month’s dramatic swap between Israel and Hezbollah which returned the bodies of two reserve soldiers to Israel in exchange for five Lebanese prisoners.

As part of the deal, Israel agreed to release some Palestinian prisoners.