JERUSALEM, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - Israel freed five Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday as part of a UN-brokered prisoner exchange with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, the prisons administration said.

Prisons spokeswoman Yarona Linhar said the five prisoners, all minors, were released from Hasharon prison, where they had been jailed for hurling rocks or firebombs and were due to be released by the end of next year.

Four of them had been arrested earlier this year, the fifth in May 2007, and all were between the ages of 14 and 16, according to the prisons authority.

A Palestinian security official said the five prisoners had been released at a military checkpoint near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.

There are currently more than 11,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

The release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners was part of a deal concluded last month that saw Israel trade five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the 2006 Lebanon war.

The deal was celebrated in Lebanon as a major victory for Hezbollah but was deeply mourned in Israel, where the soldiers' families only learned their fate when they saw television footage of two black coffins arriving at the border.

Israeli troops meanwhile raided the northern West Bank town of Nablus, arresting 10 Palestinians including Majeda al-Fadda, a city council member, a Palestinian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said five wanted Palestinians were arrested in Nablus overnight in a 'routine operation.'