Israel may agree to free Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti in a prisoner exchange deal with the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah, a senior Israeli security source was quoted as saying on Monday.
He told Reuters a deal involving hundreds of Arab prisoners, mainly Palestinians, was "in the making with the definite possibility Barghouti will be included. An agreement could be struck soon, but it's not fixed yet.
"A deal is advancing but to be finalized it would have to be brought before [the Israeli] security cabinet first for authorization. We are not there yet," said the security source, according to Reuters.
A deal between Israel and Hizbullah will be completed within a few days, other unnamed Israeli security sources were quoted as saying Monday by Palestinian daily Al-Quds.
According to this report, the head of the Israeli negotiations team for the release of the hostages left for Germany on Sunday and met with the German mediator in a bid to complete the final details of the agreement.
Sources in Lebanon and in Israel told the East Jerusalem-based newspaper that the final list of prisoners to be released by Israel as part of the deal is taking form.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian source closely associated with the German mediator brokering the deal told The Associated Press on Monday that Israel has agreed in principle to release about 400 Arab prisoners, including at least 200 Palestinians.
Barghouti, the most senior Palestinian held by Israel, tops the list of those Hizbullah seeks to free, the source said, adding that negotiations on the names of those to be released are ongoing.
The leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, Barghouti, 43, is one of the Palestinians' most prominent political leaders and has been tipped by some as a credible successor to Arafat.
In 1996, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council with overwhelming support.
He has been a major figure in the current uprising, spurring on Palestinians in speeches at funerals and demonstrations. Israel arrested him in Ramallah in April 2002, and is accusing him of organizing paramilitaries and "conspiring to murder." His trial is taking place in Tel Aviv.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
