The cabinet approved Sunday the release of five Palestinian prisoners, as part of the final stages of the prisoner exchange deal
signed between Israel
and Hizbullah
in July. The five are serving various prison sentences for stoning Israeli targets and were slated for release within the next few months.
The release of the Palestinians would mark the conclusion of the deal, in which the bodies of IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were returned from Lebanon
about two weeks ago in exchange for Samir Kuntar, four Hizbullah gunmen and the remains of 199 slain Lebanese gunmen.
Regev and Goldwasser were captured by Hizbullah gunmen during a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006. The incident triggered the Second Lebanon War.
Prior to the swap it was agreed that the number of Palestinian prisoners included in the deal would be determined solely by the Israeli government, and it is estimated that the relatively low number of prisoners slated for release stems from the cabinet's dissatisfaction with Hizbullah's report on missing navigator Ron Arad.
In the report, the Shiite
group said it had no additional information on the missing navigator's fate, but estimated that he was dead. Hizbullah also transferred two never-before-seen photos of Arad and a journal he had kept. The photos were given to the Arad family.
Arad was captured by the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Amal on October 16, 1986 after bailing out of his damaged jet while on a mission to attack PLO targets near Sidon.
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