BEIRUT/AL QUDS, Jan 29: Israel and Hezbollah guerilla foes carried out a long-awaited prisoner swap on Thursday that brought hundreds of jailed Arabs home to shouts of joy in return for a kidnapped Israeli and three dead soldiers.
Under the German-mediated deal, three years in the making, Arab prisoners swapped planes at an air base in Cologne with freed businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the wooden coffins bearing the soldiers abducted in 2000.
They arrived almost simultaneously in Israel and Lebanon, hours after 400 Palestinian prisoners were released to tearful homecomings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Key to the exchange had been the forensic identifications of the soldiers.
"My feeling can't be described...all of us feel great, as if we're born again," said senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid before setting off. Thousands of people waved yellow Hezbollah flags and fireworks lit the night sky.
A solemn ceremony was arranged near Tel Aviv to honour the dead soldiers, but a military source said Tannenbaum would face a debriefing by the Shin Bet security service.
He told Reuters before leaving Lebanon that he went there on business and to seek information on Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad, who bailed out during a mission in 1986.
He said Hezbollah had treated him well. "I think they are okay," he told Reuters in Beirut. Palestinians were happy to have their loved ones back. In the West Bank, motorists blared horns and people waved as buses took prisoners past Israeli checkpoints. Some militants fired in the air while women ululated in celebration.
"I can't believe my eyes," said 53-year-old Imam Hamoudi as she kissed her returning son in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "That's enough, don't cry," replied Fadel Hamoudi, 23, kissing her hand and hugging her.
Most of 7,000 or so Palestinians in Israeli jails had been seized during three years of violence. Most of the Arabs flown to Germany and then on to Beirut were Lebanese. A German convert to Islam jailed in 1997 as a Hezbollah agent was also freed. In addition, Israel sent bodies of some 60 guerillas back to Lebanon.
Sheikh Obeid was abducted in 1989 to help secure Arad's release. Mustafa Dirani, another prominent militiaman seized in 1994 in the search for the airman also returned home. But there was bitterness in Lebanon that the longest-serving prisoner, Samir al-Qantar, was not to be freed yet.
His release could hinge on a second stage of negotiations and whether Israel gets information on Arad, who Israelis say was handed by Lebanese guerrillas to Iranian backers and might still be alive. Iran says it has no information on his fate.
EMOTIONAL SCENES: Shereen Ahmaro fixed her eyes on her husband Akram, one of hundreds of Palestinians freed on Thursday from Israeli prisons. "I just can't believe it's happening," she said while weeping with joy.
Akram, jailed for four years for belonging to the Islamic Jihad group which has carried out scores of anti-Israeli attacks, was just one of the some 400 Palestinians released.
Surrounded by a sea of relatives, friends and neighbours after being released at the Tarquima checkpoint in the West Bank, Akram praised the Lebanese Shia militia for its incomparable gesture.
"Where all Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority have failed, Hezbollah has succeeded for it follows the righteous path of religion," he said while choking back tears.
Hundreds of relatives of other Palestinian prisoners gathered in the early morning at the Tarquima checkpoint, near Al Khalil, in anticipation of being reunited with their loved ones.
They were all united in their gratitude towards Hezbollah. "Hassan Nasrallah we thank you," chanted a group of children, referring to Hezbollah's chief. Twenty-year-old Iman Misk was almost overcome with excitement at the prospect of seeing her brother Sharif, a member ofHamas, for the first time in 10 years.-Reuters/AFP