Olmert to propose swap with Hezbollah

JERUSALEM, June 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to ask his Cabinet to approve a deal with Hezbollah to exchange prisoners for two of its captured soldiers.

Olmert told Karnit Goldwasser, the wife of one of the kidnapped soldiers, about the plan to secure the release of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, CNN reported Tuesday.

The men were kidnapped along with three other Israeli soldiers, who were killed, in a July 2006 raid by Hezbollah into northern Israel.

The abductions sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Israeli troops had invaded Lebanon trying to rescue the soldiers.

For its part, Hezbollah is most interested in gaining the release of convicted killer Samir Kuntar, who is the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel. In 1979, he and a group of men entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. They killed a police officer who came across them, the U.S. network reported.

At that time, the men took a 28-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter hostage. Kuntar was sentenced to life in prison for shooting the father dead at close range in front of his daughter, then fatally smashing her head.