Israel and Hezbollah set to swap prisoners

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In a deal mediated by a U.N.-appointed German intelligence officer, Israel was to free five prisoners in exchange for two soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas in a 2006 cross-border raid, who are widely presumed dead.

Israel will also hand over the bodies of 200 Arabs killed trying to infiltrate northern Israel. Hezbollah will return the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is arranging the exchange due to begin around 9:00 a.m. (7 a.m. British time), said the first truck carrying the remains of Arab infiltrators was on its way to the border.

Hezbollah was expected to hand over the soldiers, and only after they were identified would Israel begin to free prisoners and guerrillas' bodies to Lebanon, Israeli media said.

A Lebanese security source said it might take until Thursday to complete the transfer of all the guerrillas' remains.

"We think, we hope, especially, it is possible to do it in one day. But it's definitely going to be a long day," Jordi Raich, head of the ICRC in Lebanon told Reuters.

The Israeli army said it had sealed the border area late on Tuesday night in preparation for the exchange.

Among those slated for release was Samir Qantar, who had been serving a life prison term for the deaths of four Israelis, including a four-year-old girl and her father, in a 1979 attack with a Palestinian guerrilla group on an Israeli town.

LEBANESE PRISONERS

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