Israel rejected a proposal today by Lebanon's fundamentalist Islamic group Hizbollah to exchange some of the Israelis it holds for Palestinians under siege in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah.
"It's not a serious proposal. It's a propaganda maneuver that we reject," defense ministry spokesman Mr Yarden Vatikai said. He said the initiative by the Shiite group "reflects only Hizbollah's desire to get involved in the conflict."
Hizbollah made the proposal early today in a statement by its secretary general Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah broadcast on its television network Al Manar.
The statement spoke of "the dangers facing the four brothers" wanted by Israel for the murder last October of Israeli tourism minister Mr Rehavem Zeevi and sentenced last week by a Palestinian court in Mr Yasser Arafat's besieged Ramallah offices.
It also mentioned "the brothers besieged in the Church of the Nativity," where some 200 Palestinian gunmen are holed up, including about 30 wanted by the Israelis for alleged terrorist attacks.
Hizbollah said it was "ready to negotiate through any eventual intermediary to achieve the freedom of all these brothers and settle once and for all these two matters against (the release of) those to be agreed on among the (Israeli) prisoners in the hands of Hizbollah."
Since October 2000 Hizbollah has held four Israelis; three soldiers captured in the disputed Shebaa Farms sector and a reserve officer, Colonel El-Khanan Tennenbaum, regarded by Hizbollah as a spy but said by Israel to be a businessman.
AFP