Israel debates Hezbollah swap

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Israel’s Cabinet convened to debate and vote on a proposed prisoner exchange deal with Hezbollah.

Media reports saw Prime Minister Ehud Olmert winning Cabinet approval Sunday for the German-mediated deal under which Israel would recover Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, soldiers abducted in a July 2006 Hezbollah border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War.

In exchange, Israel would release five jailed Lebanese terrorists and return the bodies of around 10 slain infiltrators.

Among the Lebanese slated for release would be Samir Kuntar, a Druse man who snuck into Israel in 1979 and murdered four Israelis, including a 4-year-old girl and her father.

If approved, the swap is expected to be implemented within two weeks.

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