Report: Israel offered Lebanon a "civilian prisoner exchange deal"

The Lebanese newspaper "Al-Akhbar", affiliated with Hezbollah, reported on Monday that as part of the negotiations held in Rome last week, the Israeli delegation presented a division of Lebanese prisoners into two categories: Hezbollah terrorists, whose status is not subject to discussion, and Lebanese civilians who posed a danger to the activities of Israeli forces and were therefore detained.

Israel offered a "civilian prisoner exchange deal" — the transfer of Jewish remains from Jewish cemeteries in Lebanon to Israel in exchange for the release of Lebanese civilians.

According to the report, the Lebanese delegation returned to Beirut without an agreed date for the eighth round and without having managed to obtain any Israeli commitment to a ceasefire or to a reduction in military operations.

It was further learned from sources familiar with the details that the American side informed Lebanon in advance that Israel is not interested in discussing the creation of a second pilot zone. Israel intends to focus on mechanisms of direct coordination with the Lebanese army and on agreeing on the identity of the third party tasked with supervising and verifying that the Lebanese army is strictly implementing its duties in the first pilot zone.

Furthermore, according to the newspaper, during the talks, Israel announced its opposition to the presence of any European force within UNIFIL in southern Lebanon and refused to have Italy as the third supervising body, after Spain and France were also rejected.

Later, sources in Israel stated they are proposing that a force from Switzerland arrive to take on the task, noting that Israel is discussing the issue with officials in Switzerland and that there is an initial willingness to respond positively to the proposal.