JERUSALEM – Israel and Syria, longtime enemies, are involved in Russian-mediated talks for a prisoner exchange after an Israeli woman recently crossed the border and was arrested by Syrian authorities, Syrian state media and officials said on Wednesday. Israelis.
The unusual episode was kept under wraps, even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting from his office on Tuesday night to discuss what has been described as a sensitive humanitarian issue related to Syria.
The drama began to unfold amid fragments of information and rumors. On Wednesday, SANA, the Syrian news agency, reported that Syria was working to free two of its citizens from Israeli detention, through Russian mediation, in exchange for the Israeli woman, who said she had entered Syrian territory in the Golan Heights region “by mistake”. The specifics of the woman’s identity were unclear.
Few details have been released, but Netanyahu, when asked about the episode in an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday, said: “We are working to save a life”.
He said he would not comment on the news, but added, referring to the Russian leader: “I can only say that I am using my personal connections with President Putin to resolve this problem, and that we are in the middle of contacts, which cannot be discussed. ”
The border between the Israeli-controlled portion of the Golan Heights and Syria has been tense in recent years and is heavily patrolled and guarded by Israeli forces. Israel captured the Syrian Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later effectively annexed the territory. Although it is difficult to cross the border or cross it accidentally, some parts are separated by a less prohibitive fence than others.
The Syrian report named two detainees whose freedom Syria sought, Diab Qahmuz and Nihal Al-Maqt, and identified them as residents of Israel’s occupied Syrian Golan Heights. About 20,000 Syrian Druze Arabs live in villages in Israel-controlled territory. Many still identify themselves as Syrians and refuse to obtain Israeli citizenship.
According to Israeli media reports, Mr. Qahmuz is from Ghajar, a village contested in a volatile environment in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. He was convicted in 2018 and received a 14-year sentence for smuggling explosives from Lebanon to Israel on behalf of Hezbollah and for exploring possible locations for a bomb attack.
Ms. Maqt, a resident of the Golan Heights under Israeli control, was convicted on charges of incitement, according to media reports, and was released from house arrest on Wednesday.
Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, Israel’s defense minister, have been in contact with Russian officials in recent days. Netanyahu’s national security adviser and his chief negotiator for the return of Israelis in enemy hands are said to have traveled to Moscow for talks.
Russia has in the past served as an intermediary between Israel and the Syrian government. In a gesture of goodwill in 2016, President Vladimir V. Putin agreed to return to Israel a tank that was seized during a disastrous battle in 1982 with Syrian forces in southern Lebanon, an episode that left three Israeli soldiers missing in action. and haunted Israel for decades.
In 2019, Moscow arranged for the return of the sergeant’s remains. First class Zachary Baumel, an Israeli tank driver who was killed in that battle.