AL QUDS, Sept 23: Israel is to release about 400 Palestinian and Arab detainees next week as part of a long- awaited prisoner exchange deal with the Hezbollah militia, Palestinian newspapers reported Tuesday.

Citing an “informed Palestinian source”, Al Quds daily said the German-mediated exchange would “probably” take place after the end of Jewish New Year festivities this weekend.

Around 185 Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian prisoners would be released as part of the deal while the rest would be Palestinian, the report said.

“All the Palestinian factions have presented (to Hezbollah) lists with names of prisoners they want to be released,” the source added.

Marwan Barghuti, the head of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in the West Bank, and senior Hamas official Sheikh Hassan Yussef, are among the names on the list.

But Israel’s Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi denied Barghuti would be part of any exchange deal.

“He will stay in prison for dozens of years,” Hanegbi told public radio about Barghuti, who is on trial but has yet to be convicted. The Ramallah-based Al Ayyam newspaper, however, said it was “nearly certain” that Mr Barghuti and Mr Yussef would be among those released.—AFP