An Israeli action plane crashed into Moscow on Thursday night amid reports of a prisoner swap contract that resulted in the expulsion of an Israeli woman from Syria after she accidentally crossed the border. .
The development comes just hours after Israel released two Syrian shepherds arrested two weeks ago for deliberately entering Israeli territory.
Syrian state news agency SANA confirmed the reports and said the pair were released through the Quneitra border as part of the exchange agreement.
“Two Syrian prisoners, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein and Tariq Rassab al-Abidan, have been released from a prison in Israel as part of a prison exchange agreement with central Russia with Israel,” the news agency said. The report said the pair returned to the town where they live in the Quneitra region, which borders Israel.
It emerged on Wednesday that Israel is holding talks with central Russia with Syria over a prisoner exchange that would see an Israeli woman released from detention in Syria as a reward for two Druze prisoners from Israel of the Golan Heights.
National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and Yaron Blum, the official in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Israeli detainees, have flown to Moscow to discuss the conditions of Israeli woman deportation.
Sources in Israel said the prisoner’s swap contract will be seen later in the day unless improvements bring a dramatic turnaround. Sources said there was earlier hope that the young woman would be returned to Israel on a Ben-Shabbat and Blum flight back to Israel.
The woman is expected to be questioned by the Shin Bet when she arrives in Israel. Foreign media reported that the woman lived in an ultra-orthodox settlement of Modi’in Illit in the West Bank.
The two Druze inmates were identified earlier as Nihal al-Makt, who had been arrested in her hometown of the Golan Heights, and Ziyab Qahmouz, who was arrested in 2016 and served 14 years in Israeli prisons.
SANA said Al-Makt was serving a three-year sentence in addition to reporting daily for a year to Israeli authorities. She said these restrictions were lifted on Wednesday and speaking to Syrian Al-Ikhbariya TV via Skype, she said she was now free.
Qahmouz denied that he detained Israel because he wanted to return to his hometown in Golan and not be deported to Syria. According to the Israeli side, al-Makt also refused to be deported to Syria.
The Associated Press contributed to this report