Haaretz newspaper said that the Israeli intelligence services are preparing for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Egypt to take back Auda Trabin, its last spy in Egyptian prisons. The Israeli newspaper pointed out that Tel Aviv is holding 77 Egyptian prisoners in jail, some of them serving hard labor for being convicted of spying and participating in the preparation and implementation of militant operations, while others for being convicted of crimes, such as theft, assaults and illegal infiltration into Israel. Haaretz also said that the Israeli police have recently arrested 4 Egyptians near a military base in the Negev desert. They have been handed over to the Israeli army and the Israeli intelligence ‘Shabak', who issued a gag order until the completion of a deal to release the Egyptians that are in Israeli jails in exchange for the release of Trabin. The Likud party had launched a campaign in April, demanding the release of the Solomon Trabin, who was sentenced to hard labor for 15 years, of which he spent 10 years in the central prisons of Port Said, Alexandria and Tura for giving sensitive military information to Israel, and trying to recruit Egyptians to work with the Israeli intelligence in exchange for counterfeit American dollars. Druze MP Ayoub Korra from the Likud had collected electronic signatures on the party's website to pressure the Israeli government to resolve the issue of Trabin as it did that of the other spy named Azzam Azzam.
