BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah have agreed on a long-negotiated prisoner swap in the coming week involving hundreds of people.
Prisoners who are Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Moroccan, Sudanese, Libyan and German citizens are to be exchanged for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers Hezbollah had kidnapped, German and Israeli officials said Saturday, United Press International reported.
One plane will fly from Beirut to Germany carrying the Israelis. Another plane will fly from Israel with 23 Lebanese, including two prominent Hezbollah activists whom Israel kidnapped in its attempts to secure the release of missing airman Ron Arad, and other foreigners.
Some 400 Palestinian prisoners and 12 Israeli Arabs are to be released locally, a defense official said.
Israel will also hand over the bodies of Hezbollah guerrillas and maps of minefields it planted in Lebanon.
Ernst Uhrlau, who is responsible for intelligence in the German Chancellor's bureau, brokered the deal.
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