Israel will release two prisoners after the remains of a U.S.-born Israeli soldier missing since 1982 were recovered by Russian special forces in Syria, Israeli and Syrian officials said.
Russia, a key Damascus ally, this month handed over the remains and personal effects of Zachary Baumel, who was 21 when he was declared missing in action along with two other soldiers in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub during the 1982 Lebanon War.
A Syrian government source said two or more Syrians would be freed from Israeli prisons after Russian mediation.
The source said authorities had pressured Moscow to secure the prisoners' release after the news of the Israeli soldier's remains were being handed over.
Both sides appeared to step away from any suggestion that the release was part of a negotiated swap between the two enemy states Israel and Syria.
"Israel decided in the past few days to release two prisoners as a goodwill gesture, only after the return of Zachary Baumel's remains," the Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
The Israel Prison Service identified the two prisoners as Ahmed Khamis and Zidan Taweel. The Kan public broadcasting authority, however, identified the prisoners as Nashit Ahmed, 35, and Zidan Tawil, 57.
The IPS said Khamis, from Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was a member of the Palestinian Fatah group and was jailed in 2005 after he tried to infiltrate an Israeli military base in order to carry out an attack against soldiers.
Taweel, from the Syrian Druze village of Hader, was jailed in 2008 for drug smuggling, the IPS said. A spokesman for the service said it was not yet clear when they would be released.
On Friday, the Russian envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, said the return of Baumel's body was not a "unilateral" step.
"A decision was made by the Israeli side and implementing it might take some time and there will be a release of some Syrian citizens held in Israeli jails. Therefore we should not explain this as a unilateral act," Lavrentiev said in an interview with a Russian broadcaster.
