A senior Israeli official said Tuesday that progress was made in indirect talks between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah on a prisoner exchange, but confirmed that no agreement had been achieved, reported dpa.
"The ball is now in Hezbollah's court," the official told Israel Radio on condition of anonymity because the negotiations, led by a German mediator, are classified.
Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militant movement have been negotiating a prisoner swap since their 33-day war in the summer of 2006. Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in a July 2006 cross-border raid, which sparked the Israeli invasion and aerial bombing.
Local media reported that Israel would release Samir Kantar, a Lebanese militant jailed for killing a father and his daughter in a 1979 infiltration into the northern Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, an Israeli citizen jailed for espionage on Hezbollah's behalf and four other Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 war. The deal reportedly would also include the bodies of 10 Lebanese held by Israel.
The Israeli reports come after Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah hinted Monday at a possible deal, when he said Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails would soon return home.
"Samir Kantar and his brothers will soon be home among their families," Nasrallah said in a speech to commemorate the eighth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000.
A Western diplomat in Beirut said the German mediator registered "some progress" and removed "some of the prevailing obstacles" which have previously delayed the swap.
"The family has been informed of some positive developments within the next 30 days regarding my brother as well as all the other prisoners held in Israel," Bassam Kantar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.