Two Palestinian groups presented the Lebanese Hizbollah movement lists of prisoners they want out of Israeli jails as part of any swap for three Israeli soldiers held by the Lebanese Islamist group.
The Palestinian Organization in Defense of Human Rights drafted a list of "130 Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians" it would like to see released, organization leader, Abdel Sallam Akl, told AFP.
Akl said he met Monday with Hizbollah chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, "who received our request favorably" and expressed "concern" about Arab prisoners held in Israel.
Nasrallah had originally said Hizbollah was seeking the release of 19 Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.
He said his organization would soon present Hizbollah with a wish list of another 1,400 Arab prisoners, all of them members of paramilitary groups, although not all of them Islamists.
"Our major criteria were the length of the prison sentences and the prisoners' states of health," Akl said.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said it had submitted to Hizbollah a list of 1,600 Palestinians held in Israel it would like to see released.
"This is a unique occasion to put an end to prisoners' suffering after Israel imposed humiliating conditions for their release," the club said in a statement from Bethlehem.
Hizbollah on Saturday captured three Israeli soldiers on patrol in the Shabaa Farms, an area controlled by Israel but claimed by Lebanon.
Nasrallah said the operation was meant to complement anti-Israeli fighting in the Palestinian territories and said Hizbollah would give Israel the soldiers back in return for 19 Lebanese held in Israeli jails – BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
