Military

DATE=04/28/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=HEZBOLLAH OFFER (L-O)

NUMBER=2-289180

BYLINE=GREG LAMOTTE

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group is offering to trade some of the Israeli prisoners it holds to free more than 200-Palestinians surrounded by Israeli troops at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters. V-O-A's Greg LaMotte has details from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.

TEXT: The offer was made by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah in a statement read on the guerrilla group's Lebanese television station.

Hezbollah, listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, captured three Israeli soldiers in October 2000 in the disputed territory of Shebaa Farms, along Lebanon's border with the Golan Heights, now occupied by Israel.

A short time later the group captured an Israeli businessman.

Now Hezbollah says it would negotiate a trade of those prisoners for the release of about 200 Palestinians in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and four Palestinians in the Arafat compound in Ramallah. The four in Ramallah are accused of assassinating Israel's tourism minister last October.

The Israelis are demanding they be handed over for trial.

//// OPT /// Mr. Nasrallah said Hezbollah is ready to negotiate, through any mediator possible, to achieve the release of all those brothers and solve those two cases in return for whoever is agreed upon from the prisoners Hezbollah holds. /// END OPT ///

Hezbollah officials in Beirut, contacted by V-O-A, say they have not received an Israeli response to the group's latest offer.

Earlier this month, Hezbollah offered to trade the Israeli businessman for an Israeli guarantee that it would spare about 100-Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. Just hours after the offer, Israeli troops killed dozens of the gunmen during a battle in the Jenin camp.

During the past month Hezbollah forces have launched several missile attacks on Israeli troops in Shebaa Farms. (SIGNED)

NEB/GL/DW/RAE