On January 29, 2004, Israel and the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, displayed a prisoner swap with the assistance of Germany as a mediator. Hezbollah released Elhanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli businessman and soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Tannenbaum was returned with the bodies of three IDF soldiers that had been killed. These soldiers were Sgt. Adi Avitan, Staff Sgt. Benyamin Avraham, and Staff Sgt. Omar Sawaid, who had been missing since October 2000 and were presumed dead. In return, Israel released 400 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank and Gaza. The swap was completed after Israel identified the soldiers’ remains, which were then flown from Lebanon to the German air base.The German-brokered deal also called for Israel to provide Lebanon with information on the 24 missing Lebanese civilians, and to turn over the bodies of 59 Lebanese casualties killed by Israeli forces, according to Berlin. In addition, the pact asked Israel to provide IDF-maps locating mines along the Israeli-Lebanese border. The agreement was based in principle on an Israeli Cabinet agreement from November, which was delayed because of disagreements over Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 participated in an attack on an Israeli family in Nahariya, in which four Israelis were murdered. Hezbollah wanted Kuntar to be part of the deal, but Israel refused to release prisoners with ‘blood on their hands’. However, Kuntar’s case would be reviewed during this mediation. The Israelis said the prisoner would be released after they received “substantial proof” about what had happened to Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who crashed in Lebanon in 1986 and had been captured. Israeli negotiators hoped that this would be an opportunity to learn the fate of Arad and his navigator. Israel had been holding Hezbollah officials Obeid and Dirani — whom Israeli commandos kidnapped in Lebanon — as bargaining chips for the release of Arad.