Papers hail prisoner swap 'victory'

Friday's Arabic papers welcome the release by Israel of Hezbollah militants following a controversial prisoner exchange deal.

In Israel, papers praise the fact that Israel received so little in return - one businessmen and the bodies of three soldiers - as a mark of the high price it puts on its citizens.

A deadly suicide bomb attack in Israel in apparent retaliation for the killing of nine Palestinians in Gaza also attracts attention.

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This is the second time that Hezbollah has achieved a victory against the enemy government, after it first forced the Israeli army to withdraw from southern Lebanon following painful resistance attacks.

Al-Watan - Saudi Arabia

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The releasing of the POWs at this particular time is a victory over [Ariel] Sharon, the Israeli prime minister who has always remained boastful of his stubbornness, radicalism and capability to safeguard Israelis.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi - UK based

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The agreement to exchange prisoners between Hezbollah and Israel raises a number of major issues. The first is that this agreement has made Israel recognise the legality of national resistance.

Al-Mustaqbal - Lebanon

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No matter what were the deficiencies in the agreement Hezbollah reached with Sharon's government, holes were made in prison walls and out of them most of the Lebanese prisoners went.

AL-Hayat Al-Jadidah - UK-based

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We have no reason to feel ashamed of the fireworks in Lebanon. We have no reason to criticize the prisoner exchange deal or to calculate the price. We have every reason to be proud. A state that pays such a high price for three bodies and a citizen is a precious state. It is a state that is worth the price.

Yediot Aharonot - Israel

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Despite all the criticism, damage and the strategic effect, a whole people wept yesterday with three families in front of three coffins.

This Jewish sentiment which Ariel Sharon spoke about, the expression of pain in the eyes of Shaul Mofaz, the chief-of-staff reading the personal numbers of the three soldiers, the never-ending, relentless effort of a whole nation to always bring back its sons home at any price in any situation is very, very commendable.

Ma'ariv - Israel

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The leadership's indifference to the daily killing of Israelis and Palestinians sits incongruously with the enormous efforts the government invested in bringing about last night's fete, marking the return of those who were known to be dead...

Indeed, paralysis of the leadership on both sides of the conflict has accompanied the ceaseless acts of killing.

Ha'aretz - Israel

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Peace initiatives stirred Israel's abundant aggression so that it killed nine Palestinians in one of its attacks on Gaza. However, 24 hours after its crimes it received a painful hit by the Palestine resistance near Sharon's house...

The Palestinian message is clear and says directly that Israel's crimes cannot pass without punishment.

Al-Jazeera - Saudi Arabia

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What is happening confirms to us that the wall of racism which the Zionist regime calls its security wall will not even protect Sharon. The martyrdom operation which was carried out yesterday was just an inch from his residence.

Al-Bayan - UAE

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The horrible bloody terrorist attack we witnessed yesterday morning... must lead to an immediate change in the government's security policy. The bloody incident came to remind us that no change has taken place in the deadly strategy of the terrorist organisations.

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Hatzofe - Israel

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.