Jerusalem - A long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement could take place on Wednesday next week, Israeli and Lebanese officials said Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, confirmed the premier plans to convene his cabinet the day before, on Tuesday.
The cabinet is to give the final go-head for the deal, which involves two abducted Israeli soldiers believed to be dead, in exchange for five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of some 199 militants and Hezbollah fighters killed in action and buried at an special cemetery in northern Israel.
Lebanese security officials said the Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, would be handed over at the coastal border crossing between Israel and Lebanon, known in Israel as Rosh Ha'Nikra and in Lebanon as Naquora.
They said the prisoners will then will be transferred in Lebanese army helicopters to Beirut international airport where they are to receive an official welcome, in addition to another official reception in Beirut's southern suburbs with Hezbollah chief sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
Regev did not deny the swap itself could take place on Wednesday, saying "it is possible," but the final decision would come only in Tuesday's cabinet decision.
Israel Radio reported that the Israeli military had been ordered to make final preparations necessary to be able to carry out the move by mid next week.
Olmert's representative on the prisoners of war issue, Ofer Dekel, signed the deal, brokered by a United Nations-appointed German mediator, Gerhard Conrad, while in Germany Sunday.
But Israel had clarified that the deal, even if signed, would be implemented only after it received a detailed and satisfactory report by Hezbollah on missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.
Israel has sent back a version of the report, demanding a series of clarifications. It expects to receive the final version this weekend.
The Israeli cabinet had already given its initial approval for the swap a week earlier after an hours-long, stormy session.
The deal is controversial in Israel because under it, Israel is widely expected to receive the dead bodies of its two abducted soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, in exchange for five living Lebanese prisoners, including the longest-held, high-profile Samir Kuntar.
Israel's Shin Bet internal security organization and Mossad intelligence agency were strongly opposed to the deal, saying by signing it, Israel gave up its last chance to receive conclusive information on Ron Arad in exchange for Kuntar.
Kuntar is serving multiple life sentences for leading a 1979 hostage-taking in the northern Israeli town of Nehariya, in which he and his men killed four Israelis, including a father and his four-year-old daughter.
The report on Arad, in which Hezbollah details its unsuccessful efforts to shed light on his fate, is a compromise.
Regev and Goldwasser were captured in a July 2006 cross-border raid by Hezbollah, which had sparked a month-long, deadly and destructive war, but had failed to secure their release. Since their capture, Hezbollah has not permitted the Red Cross to visit them, and allowed no sign of life from them.
The other four Lebanese prisoners to be freed are Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 33-day war. The swap is to be carried out under the auspices of the Red Cross. Israel has also committed to free some seven to 10 Palestinian prisoners at a later stage.
