(29 Jun 2008)
Sidon, 45 kilometres south of Beirut
1. Wide of Samir Kantar, Lebanese guerrilla in prison in Israel, posters
2. Man hanging posters of Samir Kantar
3. Mid of activist spreading drawings of Samir Kantar on ground
4. Wide of banners on floor
5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Rana Sayyad, Activist:
"We are preparing for another victory which is the release of Samir Kantar who is the longest serving prisoner in Israel."
6. Various of activists drawing posters
7. Wide of poster showing in Arabic sign of Chebaa farms
8. Wide of banner reading (Arabic): "Today prisoners will be liberated and tomorrow Palestine."
9. Banner reading (Arabic): "Our congratulations for the release of the prisoners"
10. Various of people putting up banners
11. Photo of Samir Kantar and imprisoned Fatah leader, Marwan Bargouti (Photos supplied by family member)
12. Photo of Kantar and other prisoners
13. Photo of Kantar on the left of the frame with other militants before his capture in 1979
STORYLINE:
Activists for the Leftist Popular Democratic Party gathered in the southern city of Sidot on Sunday to celebrate the imminent release of Samir Kantar, a Lebanese guerrilla, imprisoned for nearly 30 years for an attack etched in the Israeli psyche as one of the cruellest in the nation's history.
The Israeli cabinet voted overwhelmingly on Sunday for a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, even though two soldiers captured by the Lebanese militia two years ago are believed to be dead.
"We are preparing for another victory which is the release of Samir Kantar who is the longest serving prisoner in Israel," said activist Rana Sayyad in Sidot.
The deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group has sparked a fierce debate over whether Israel would be giving up too much - or carrying out its highest commitment to its soldiers to do everything possible to bring them home if they fell into enemy hands.
Hezbollah militants captured Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in a July 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a vicious, monthlong war.
In return for their bodies, the Cabinet agreed to release Samir Kantar.
Hezbollah had offered no sign that Goldwasser and Regev were alive and the Red Cross was never allowed to see them.
Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said for the first time that Israel has concluded the two soldiers were dead - killed during the raid or shortly after.
In exchange for the soldiers' bodies, the cabinet was asked to agree to give up Kantar, who is serving multiple life terms in a 1979 infiltration attack on a northern Israeli town.
Witnesses said Kantar - then 16 - shot Danny Haran in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then smashed her skull against a rock with his rifle butt, killing her, too.
During the attack, Danny Haran's wife accidentally smothered their 2-year-old daughter in a frantic attempt to keep her quiet so Kantar and his comrades wouldn't find them in the crawl space of their apartment. Two Israeli policemen also were killed.
Kantar denies killing the 4-year-old.
In addition to the bodies, Israel will receive a report on a missing Israeli airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986, and body parts of other Israeli soldiers.
In addition to Kantar, Lebanon will receive four imprisoned Hezbollah fighters, a dozen bodies, most of them Hezbollah militants, and an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. Hezbollah had demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Critics have argued that swapping bodies for Kantar would offer militant groups an even greater incentive to capture soldiers and less of a reason to keep captives alive.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
