Syria currently holds negotiations with Israel on a Russian-brokered prisoner swap deal, under which the two incarcerated Syrian citizens can be freed in exchange for a young Israeli woman arrested when crossing Syria's border by mistake, state-run news agency SANA reported on Wednesday, citing an unspecified source
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2021) Syria currently holds negotiations with Israel on a Russian-brokered prisoner swap deal, under which the two incarcerated Syrian citizens can be freed in exchange for a young Israeli woman arrested when crossing Syria's border by mistake, state-run news agency SANA reported on Wednesday, citing an unspecified source.
"Operations are underway to liberate Syrian citizens of the occupied Syrian Golan from prisons of the Israeli occupation ... The swap process is taking place through Russia's mediation to free the Syrians, Nihal al-Maqt and Dhiyab Qahmuz ... in an exchange, during which a young Israeli woman will be released. She accidentally entered the Syrian territory, the Quneitra province, and was arrested by the relevant Syrian authorities," the source said.
Meanwhile, the identity of the 25-year-old Israeli woman has not been specified so far.
In addition, the Palestinian Prisoner Society released a statement saying that the Israel Prison Service on Wednesday morning informed Qahmuz about his release, according to a Russian-sponsored deal between Syria and Israel.
"So far, negotiations are underway on whether he will be transferred to Syria or to his village of Ghajar in the occupied Golan," the statement read, adding that the prisoner insists that he be released to Ghajar.
In April 2019, Russia, which plays a key role in settling the deep-rooted internal crisis in Syria for years, mediated another prisoner swap operation between the two countries, during which the body of Zachary Baumel, an Israel Defense Forces' soldier who was killed in the 1982 Sultan Yacoub battle, was returned in exchange for the release of prisoners.
According to media reports, Qahmuz, a resident of an Israeli Arab village on the Lebanese border, received a 14-year sentence in 2018 for smuggling explosives from Lebanon's Hezbollah into Israel and plotting a terrorist attack there. He was also fined over $34,000.
Al-Maqt, a Syrian resident of the northern Golan Heights, reportedly comes from a family of prisoners, with all of them opposing Israel's rule over the area. He was indicted by an Israeli court in 2017 for incitement.
The territory of the Golan Heights was annexed by Israel in 1981, but this was recognized by the United Nations. The Golan Heights is widely seen as an exceptionally important strategic area, chiefly since it offers a clear view on both Syria and Israel.
