Israel rejected a proposal on Sunday by Lebanon's fundamentalist Islamic group Hezbollah to exchange some of the Israelis it holds for Palestinians under siege in the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah.
"It's not a serious proposal. It's a propaganda manoeuvre that we reject," defense ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikai said.
He said that the initiative by the Shiite group "reflects only Hezbollah's desire to get involved in the conflict."
Hezbollah made the proposal early on Sunday in a statement by its secretary general Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah broadcast on its television network Al Manar.
The statement spoke of "the dangers facing the four brothers" wanted by Israel for the murder last October of Israeli tourism minister Rehavem Zeevi and sentenced last week by a Palestinian court in Yasser Arafat's besieged Ramallah offices.
It also mentioned "the brothers besieged in the Church of the Nativity," where some 200 Palestinian gunmen are holed up, including about 30 wanted by the Israelis for alleged terrorist attacks.
Hezbollah said it was "ready to negotiate through any eventual intermediary to achieve the freedom of all these brothers and settle once and for all these two matters against (the release of) those to be agreed on among the (Israeli) prisoners in the hands of Hezbollah."
Since October 2000 Hezbollah has held four Israelis; three soldiers captured in the disputed Shebaa Farms sector and a reserve officer, Colonel El-Khanan Tennenbaum, regarded by Hezbollah as a spy but said by Israel to be a businessman. Bureau Report