Israel on Friday released four more Lebanese detainees and handed them over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as part of a US-mediated agreement connected to efforts to locate the remains of Jewish Lebanese citizens who went missing during Lebanon’s civil war.
The agreement provides for the release of five Lebanese civilians. The first detainee, Malek Ghazi, was freed on Thursday and handed over to the ICRC before being transferred to the Lebanese army, reports AP.
The ICRC confirmed on Friday that the remaining four detainees had been placed in its custody. The organisation also urged Israel to grant its representatives access to other prisoners held in Israeli facilities, saying its teams have been unable to visit detainees there since October 2023.
Mahmoud Ayash, whose brother Hussein was among those detained, said Hussein had spent more than two months in custody. He later contacted his family from the Naqoura border crossing to inform them that he had been released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel agreed to release the five Lebanese civilians after Lebanon helped efforts to recover the remains of Lebanese Jewish leaders whom Israel says were abducted and killed by militant groups during the civil war in the 1980s.
Dozens of Lebanese detainees, including civilians and members of Hezbollah, are believed to remain in Israeli custody.
The releases come as Israel and Lebanon engage in an unusual round of direct negotiations despite having no diplomatic relations. The talks began following the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted on 2 March.
In June, the two sides reached a US-brokered framework calling for Israeli forces to withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament. However, implementation of the agreement has seen limited progress.
Hezbollah has not joined the negotiations and has rejected calls to surrender its weapons north of the Litani River. Israel, for its part, has said it will not complete a full withdrawal from Lebanon unless Hezbollah is disarmed throughout the country.
A further round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations is expected to take place in Rome later this month.
