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Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz does not rule out the possibility of releasing the Lebanese militant Samir Kantar in exchange for two missing Israeli soldiers. (AP file)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners September 13, 2006 |
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Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, responding to Lebanese guerrillas' prisoner exchange demands, acknowledged on Wednesday that a Lebanese militant held in a deadly 1979 raid was at the center of talks to free two Israeli soldiers.
Israel has refused in previous swaps to free Samir Kantar, convicted of killing a man and his young daughter in an attack on their house, bashing her to death in front of her father. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, whose Hezbollah militant group is holding two Israeli soldiers, demanded on Tuesday that Kantar be freed as a condition of any exchange.
Asked about Kantar, Peretz did not rule out the possibility of releasing the Lebanese terrorist.
"There is no doubt that Samir Kantar is one of the central questions being dealt with in any negotiation of this type," Peretz told Israel Radio on Wednesday. "But I suggest that we allow this issue to be dealt with in a very, very secret, very serious, very significant manner."
Releasing Kantar would be an extremely charged political decision because of the brutality of the raid. After bursting into a building in northern Israel, he shot a man in front of his 4-year-old daughter, then killed the girl by smashing her head against a rock with his rifle butt.
The man's wife, who had hidden in a crawl space in the family's apartment, held her hand over the mouth of their 2-year-old daughter to keep her from crying out. In trying to save their lives, the mother smothered the child.
Hezbollah's capture of the two soldiers and killing of three others touched off the recent war between the guerrilla group and Israel in Lebanon.
Although Israel has rejected calls for a prisoner swap and the U.N. cease-fire ending the Lebanon war called for the soldiers' unconditional release, Israel has exchanged prisoners in the past. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he will appoint a mediator to broker indirect talks between Israel and the Islamic militant group on the servicemen's release.
On Tuesday, Nasrallah said he accepted the U.N. mediation, and that the envoy would launch talks next week.
Kantar is serving prison terms totaling 542 years in the 1979 attack.
The AP contributed to this report.
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