HISTORY OF SWAPS

A history of Israeli prisoner swaps since 1982.

1983 Israel frees 4,600 Arab detainees in return for six Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon.

1984 Israel swaps 291 Syrians captured in battle and the remains of 72 Syrians for six Israelis and five bodies, only two of which are positively identified as Israelis. Israel also frees 20 Arab civilians held for spying and security offences.

May 1985 Israel releases 1,150 Arab prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

June-July 1985 Israel frees 331 Lebanese Shiite detainees. Shiite leaders say their freedom was guaranteed in exchange for the return of 39 foreign passengers hijacked in an American TWA airliner to Beirut. Israel denies a connection.

1996 Hezbollah and Israel carry out a German-brokered swap when the bodies of 123 terrorists are returned to Lebanon in exchange for the remains of two Israeli soldiers.

2004 Israel releases 436 Palestinian and other Arab prisoners in a deal with Hezbollah for the return of Elhanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli businessman, and three dead Israeli soldiers abducted on a border patrol in 2000.

2008 In return for releasing five men, Israel recovered from Hezbollah the bodies of two of its soldiers, captured in a 2006 cross-border raid that triggered a 34-day war with the Iranian-backed group.