JERUSALEM – Israel and Syria have waged several wars, never had diplomatic relations, and still contest the sovereignty of a country, the Golan Heights, which was seized by Israel from Syria in 1967.
But on Thursday, the two countries shared a rare moment of indirect cooperation and participated in a Russian-mediated prisoner exchange that saw an Israeli woman being held captive by Syria exchanged for two Syrian shepherds captured by Israel, the Israeli government announced early Friday morning.
“Israel has always done and will always do everything in its power to bring our citizens back,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
The woman was not nominated. But she is in her twenties, comes from near Jerusalem and has a history of trying to enter Israel’s neighbors illegally, an Israeli official said. She entered Syria in early February before being detained by Syrian authorities, who quickly realized she was a citizen rather than a spy, the official said.
The exact circumstances of her entry are unclear and will be investigated by Israeli officials after her return.
After mediation by Russia, a Syrian ally with a large military presence in the country, the woman was flown to Moscow, the official said. There, she was met Thursday night by an Israeli team that included former intelligence officer Yaron Blum, who has a history of involvement in prisoner exchanges.
Her handover was preceded by the release of two Syrian shepherds captured by Israel after migrating by land to the Golan Heights ruled by Israel.
The Golan Heights were occupied by Israel during the 1967 war between Israel, Syria, Jordan and Egypt and are home to about 20,000 Druze Arabs. Most of the area is divided by a boundary fence, but it is possible to cross the border into more mountainous parts of the region, where it is difficult to build a fortified barrier.
Israeli officials have been communicating with Russian counterparts on the matter since at least February 8. To facilitate the exchange, Mr. Netanyahu spoke twice with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
But the possibility of an exchange was kept secret until Tuesday for fear the deal would be jeopardized.
The Israeli woman first had to be exchanged for two Arab residents of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights detained by Israeli authorities.
But one of them, Diyab Qahmuz, in jail for smuggling explosives from Lebanon to Israel, according to Israeli media, refused to be sent to Syria. The second, Nihal al-Maqt, is still subject to further interrogation by the Israeli Interior Intelligence Agency, the official said.
The Syrian shepherds were then quickly drafted as replacements, which led to their release at a Syrian border crossing on Thursday afternoon and the woman’s subsequent delivery to Moscow. It was unclear early Friday whether she had yet left the Russian capital to return to Israel.
“The state of Israel would like to express its appreciation for the actions of the President of Russia,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
Russia has mediated in similar episodes in the past. In 2016, Mr. Putin helped facilitate the return of an Israeli tank captured by Syrian troops in southern Lebanon in 1982. Three years later, the Kremlin mediates the return of the remains of a tank driver who died in the same battle, Zachary Baumel.
Isabel Kershner reported.