Five detained Lebanese handed over by Israel to Red Cross representatives

Five Lebanese detainees held in Israel were transferred to Lebanon through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC said one Lebanese was handed over on Thursday and the other four on Friday 4 September.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported yesterday that as part of negotiations with Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu ordered to intensify the search and return to Israel of the remains of leaders of the Lebanese Jewish community, abducted and killed by terrorist organizations in the mid-1980s.

In recent months, according to the office, Israel and Lebanon have taken a number of actions to search for them, including on the ground. We are talking about 12 members of the Lebanese Jewish community who were kidnapped and killed about 40 years ago.

On the Israeli side, this work is headed by the coordinator for hostage and missing persons issues, Gal Hirsch, who personally presented maps and diagrams to the Lebanese representatives during the negotiations in Rome, i24News reports.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Hirsch to raise the issue with Lebanese officials once negotiations began. Israel subsequently provided intelligence information, including maps, aerial photographs and other information indicating possible locations of the remains. It is reported that a search was carried out, but no remains were found.

Against this background, it was decided to release five Lebanese citizens detained in the territories of Southern Lebanon controlled by the IDF: after completion of the investigation, it was established that they were not members of terrorist organizations, were not engaged in terrorist activities, and there were no grounds for their further detention in Israel.