JERUSALEM — Israel TV on Sunday showed tractors working at a cemetery where Lebanese and Palestinian fighters are buried, part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli military officials said the exhumation of bodies would begin Monday, and identification of the remains would take several days. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the cemetery in Israel’s north has been declared a closed military zone so there will be no coverage of the process.
Israel approved the prisoner swap last week. In exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured two years ago by the Lebanese guerrillas, Israel is set to free Samir Qantar, a Lebanese serving multiple life terms for a grisly attack in 1979 in which a father, his two daughters and two policemen died. Also, Israel will free several other prisoners and return bodies of fighters.
Israel declared its two soldiers dead a week ago, just before it approved the swap. Their capture set off a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
The TV report said there is no firm timetable for carrying out the swap.
