Israel Repeats Offer to Swap Prisoners After Demand by Hezbollah That It Free 5 Arabs

The Israeli government on Saturday repeated its offer to swap prisoners with Shiite Muslim extremists in Lebanon and cautiously studied a statement by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement demanding freedom for five Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for fatal attacks against Israeli civilians.

Among the prisoners named by Hezbollah was a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who deliberately steered a bus off a highway near Jerusalem last month. Sixteen passengers, including two Canadians and an American, were killed in the fiery crash.

The statement of Hezbollah (Party of God) came in the wake of hints publicized last week that it would hand the Red Cross a list of the names of prisoners whom it wants Israel to free. No such list has been given to Israel; the names announced Saturday were given to news agencies in Beirut.

As a precondition for any move, Hezbollah demanded the release of a Shiite clergyman, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, and two of his relatives seized July 28 by Israeli commandos in southern Lebanon.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose ministry deals with hostage matters here, announced Saturday night that “Israel’s offer is valid.” The offer, made last week, included a willingness to exchange Obeid and other Shiites held by Israel for three Israeli soldiers, now in Hezbollah hands, as well as 14 Western hostages.

“But we are not taking into consideration public announcements,” Rabin said. “If and when Hezbollah contacts the Red Cross and the Red Cross contacts us, we will discuss it seriously.”

Eitan Haber, a spokesman for Rabin, said: “This is a war of nerves.”

Israel would consider a Hezbollah contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross to be an indication that the group would be willing to make a deal, a Foreign Ministry official added.

Should Hezbollah respond concretely, the possible release of some of the prisoners it listed would be hard for the Israeli public to swallow.

One, Abdel Hadi Suleiman Ghanem, a Palestinian refugee, grabbed the steering wheel of passenger bus No. 405 on July 7 and sent it crashing off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway.

Another, Nidal Zaloum, a college student from Ramallah, slashed bystanders on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in early May, killing two people waiting at a bus stop.

The Jaffa Road knifings and the bus tragedy set off outpourings of rage among Israeli citizens. There would probably be a public uproar at the release of the suspects.

Ital Alyan, another mentioned prisoner, last year tried to kill Maj. Gen. Antoine Lahad, commander of the South Lebanon Army, a Christian-led militia allied with Israel in southern Lebanon.

The charges against the other two Palestinians on the Hezbollah list, Anwar Yassin and Shoha Bishara, are not known publicly here. Hezbollah called them “heroes of the Lebanese resistance,” indicating that they had fought Israel along its border with Lebanon.

Despite the possibility of domestic controversy, Israeli officials were not ruling out a swap that would include these prisoners.

“We’ll have to see. It would be difficult, but if it’s an offer, we would have to look at it. We have set murderers free before to get back our people,” a Foreign Ministry official said.

In a speech to a United Jewish Appeal meeting last week, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir spelled out Israel’s position. “We do not forsake the soldier in the battlefield, nor do we relent in our efforts to obtain the release of a soldier or civilian who may be abducted under any circumstances by enemies or terrorists,” he said.