Israel and its Hezbollah guerrilla foes staged a long-awaited prisoner swap yesterday that freed hundreds of jailed Arabs in return for a kidnapped Israeli and three dead soldiers.
The key to the German-mediated deal, three years in the making, was the identification at a Cologne air base of the bodies of the troops abducted at the border in 2000 and handed over by Hezbollah with businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum.
Shortly after the identification, Israel began releasing 400 Palestinian prisoners at five checkpoints into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. About 30 Arab prisoners from elsewhere were waiting at the German airport to fly home under the exchange.
"Thank God for our freedom. We hope that all prisoners will be released," said Mohammed Abu Hadas, who served 14 months for belonging to an Islamic group as he returned to Gaza. There are some 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"We are happy, but our present happiness will be completed when all prisoners in Israeli jails are released."
In the West Bank, motorists blared their horns and people on the street waved as buses carried the prisoners past Israeli checkpoints.
The majority had been seized during three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Most of the Arabs flown from Israel were Lebanese expected to return home later in the day. A German convert to Islam jailed in 1997 as a Hezbollah agent was also freed. In addition, Israel sent bodies of some 60 guerrillas back to Lebanon.
Tannenbaum said he had gone to Lebanon to seek information on Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad, who bailed out during a mission in 1986, as well as for business.
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