JERUSALEM — Israel and Syria, long bitter foes, are engaged in Russian-mediated talks for a prisoner exchange after an Israeli woman recently crossed the frontier and was detained by the Syrian authorities, Syrian state media and Israeli officials said on Wednesday. The unusual episode had been kept under wraps, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday evening to discuss what was described as a sensitive humanitarian issue related to Syria. The drama has since begun to unfold amid snippets of information and rumors. On Wednesday, SANA, the Syrian news agency, reported that Syria was working to liberate two of its citizens from Israeli detention, through Russian mediation, in exchange for the Israeli woman, who it said had entered Syrian territory in the Golan Heights region “by mistake.” The specifics of the woman’s identity were unclear. Few details have been released, but Mr. Netanyahu, when asked about the episode in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio later Wednesday, said, “We are working to save a life.”

Source: New York Times February 17, 2021 19:41 UTC