The Israeli government has been under intense pressure to go through with the swap by the parents and family of two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured by Hezbollah in 2006.

The capture of the two IDF soldiers, during a cross-border raid by fighters from the Islamic resistance movement, sparked the Second Lebanon War in July of 2006.

During the war over 1,000 Lebanese civilians, an unknown number of Hezbollah fighters, and a large number of Israeli soldiers and a small number of Israeli civilians were killed.

Twenty-two Israeli ministers voted in favor of the pending prisoner swap deal, while three voted against. Also objecting to the prisoner swap at Sunday's cabinet meeting was Mossad chief Meir Dagan and the chief of Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, Yuval Diskin.

Some Israelis also opposed the exchange, believing it rewarded Hezbollah's policy of capturing Israeli soldiers for political gain. Others were angered by the imminent release of one of the most important prisoners, the notorious Samir Kuntar.

Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze was a member of the Palestine Liberation Front which took part in an attack in 1979 that ended in the killing of an Israeli policeman and three Israeli civilians from the Haran family.

Sisters Einat, two, and Yael, four, died after Kuntar and his accomplices broke into the Haran family apartment in the coastal town of Nahariya.

The brutality of the attack, during which the 17-year-old Kuntar beat Yael to death by smashing her head against some rocks on the beach and then crushed her skull with his rifle butt as he tried to escape left an indelibly bitter imprint on the collective psyche of Israel.

The younger sister Einat was accidentally smothered to death earlier by her mother in an effort to silence her as the terrified pair hid in the family apartment.

Despite the strong emotions, pragmatism won the day as the ministers were urged to vote in favor of the prisoner exchange by IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi who stated, "I am the commander of all the soldiers ... of the living and the dead, and therefore I say to you the deal must be approved."

The exchange, negotiated by German Gerhard Konrad, will take place in four stages.

First will be the signing of the deal which will take place shortly in the presence of Konrad who will most likely fly to Beirut for Hezbollah's signature.

Israel's chief negotiator Ofer Dekel will then travel to Germany this week to finalize final arrangements on the prisoner swap.

The second part of the deal will involve Israel providing the Lebanese resistance movement with details of the disappearance of four Iranian government officials during the 1980s in Beirut who are believed to have been executed by Lebanese Christian militiamen allied with Israel.

In return Hezbollah will provide Israel with information on the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and believed to have been captured by the Shiite group.

Should the reports prove satisfactory to the German negotiator, the Lebanese guerilla group will then hand over Goldwasser and Regev or their remains if they are no longer alive.

In exchange, Israel will deliver Kuntar, along with four Hezbollah guerillas who were captured in the Second Lebanon War and the remains of eight other Hezbollah fighters. This phase will take place at Rosh Hanikra in Israel under Red Cross auspices.

Israeli sources state this swap will take place in several weeks. The final stage will be marked by Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners of its choosing, approved by the Shin Bet. Cabinet members are set to discuss the list in the coming weeks.

In the interim, while negotiations over a prisoner swap with Lebanon have been progressing, talks on the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas fighters, over two years ago and who remains in custody in Gaza, have stalled.

Hamas is prepared to release Shalit in exchange for 450 prisoners, as part of the first stage, but the Jewish state and the Palestinian resistance movement are stuck on the fate of 30 Hamas prisoners. Israel had initially refused to release prisoners who it asserted "have blood on their hands."

Altogether Hamas wants 1,000 Palestinians released and to date Shin Bet's Diskin has become more flexible in regard to releasing some Hamas fighters whom Israel argues fall into the above category.

The Israeli government's coordinator for hostage negotiations, Ofer Dekel, left for Cairo on Thursday, to resume talks with the Egyptians as part of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Parallel talks between Hamas and Egypt took place simultaneously. But what appears to be a sticking point for the Israelis is Hamas' new demand.

The Islamic group now says the release of Marwan Barghouti, the popular and imprisoned leader of Tanzim, an offshoot of Fatah the military wing related to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has to be part of the deal.

Furthermore, Hamas is also demanding the release of another prominent prisoner, Ahmad Sadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a socialist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is also currently incarcerated in an Israeli jail.

The success of these negotiations doesn't appear promising at present. Hamas appears to be in no hurry and not in the mood for being pressured. One of its spokesman commented, "Shalit had begun his third year in jail and as far as we're concerned, he can begin a fourth year there."