Final preparations for swap underway

Inmates, including Kuntar, to stay in prison near Netanya until Goldwasser, Regev back in Israel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Nasrallah in armchair 22 (photo credit: AP)
Nasrallah in armchair 22
(photo credit: AP)
Final preparations are underway both in Israel and in Lebanon for the prisoner swap to be carried out at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday at the Rosh Hanikra border crossing in the North, the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported on Monday. In Israel, Prisons Service personnel transferred four Hizbullah inmates from a prison in the South to Hadarim Prison near Netanya, where killer Samir Kuntar is imprisoned. The group will be kept in the facility until kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are transferred to Israeli custody. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Hizbullah decided to name the swap the "Radwan Operation" - referring to Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, whose nom de guerre was Hajj Radwan - As-Safir reported. Mughniyeh was killed in February by a car bomb in Damascus. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah will officially announce the name of the operation during a rally for the released Lebanese prisoners in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut on Wednesday, the report said. The report elaborated on Hizbullah's celebration plans for Wednesday, detailing three events to take place sequentially as follows: 1. A reception of the 200 terrorists' bodies at the border crossing with Israel. 2. A celebratory welcome ceremony for Kuntar and the four other Lebanese prisoners. The five will be flown from the Israel-Lebanese border by a Lebanese army helicopter to Beirut, where they will be greeted by the heads of the Lebanese government during an official state ceremony. 3. A massive rally in the Dahiya neighborhood where Nasrallah is expected to speak. During his speech, the Hizbullah leader will likely reveal more details about the kidnapping of Goldwasser and Regev. According to UNIFIL peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon, as well as witnesses in the area, plain-clothes Hizbullah operatives have been working near the border to lay the logistical groundwork for the swap, the paper reported. The paper also stated that Hizbullah received a dossier compiled by Israel regarding four Iranian diplomats who went missing in Beirut in 1982, as part of the prisoner swap agreement. There was no word on the group's response to the report.