The International Committee of the Red Cross announced on Friday that it had transferred to Lebanon four additional people released by Israel, after the release of one civilian on Thursday.
The international organization issued a statement saying: “At the request of the parties concerned, the International Committee of the Red Cross facilitated the transfer of five people who were released to Lebanon,” and explained that “one person was transferred on Thursday and four others on Friday.”
The Lebanese army received those released through the Naqoura crossing in southern Lebanon, and yesterday, Thursday, the Lebanese side announced the receipt of one person named Malik Ghazi, after his release by Israel.
It turned out that the detained persons were civilians who had not participated in any operations against Israel.
On Friday, an Agence France-Presse correspondent saw three Red Cross vehicles arriving from the area occupied by Israel in southern Lebanon to a Lebanese army checkpoint in Amriya, at the beginning of the area under the authority of the Lebanese state.
Two Lebanese army vehicles accompanied the convoy to the city of Tyre, where the released men were scheduled to be subjected to medical examinations and interrogated by the army.
For his part, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun thanked the United States and international bodies for the efforts that led to the liberation of what he described as “the first batch of Lebanese detainees,” stressing the necessity of completing the required steps to restore full Lebanese sovereignty.
On Thursday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced its readiness to release five Lebanese civilians who were arrested by Israeli forces in the midst of confrontations with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
According to what informed sources reported to the BBC, the four people who Israeli reports indicated were extradited on Friday are: Hussein Abdullah Mahmoud Ayyash, Asaad Mahmoud Muhammad Al-Hasika (Syrian), Ali Hassan Shor, and Sam Ibrahim Al-Samadi.
The committee's spokesman in the Middle East, Hashim Oseiran, told Agence France-Presse earlier Thursday that "a humanitarian operation is currently being implemented," explaining that "to ensure the safety of the operation and to preserve the safety of all its participants," the details will be announced after the implementation of the operation is completed.
Netanyahu's office announced in a statement Thursday that "it was decided to release five Lebanese civilians who were arrested in areas under the control of the Israeli army in southern Lebanon."
He added, "After completing their interrogation, it turned out that they are civilians who are not members of any terrorist organization, did not participate in terrorist acts, and there is no reason to continue detaining them in Israel."
This is the first time that Israel has released people it has detained since the outbreak of the conflict.
The Lebanese authorities did not specify the number of its citizens detained by Israel, but their families and a committee concerned with their affairs documented the names of at least 33 people, who have been detained successively on Lebanese territory since 2024, including at least one Syrian and a number of Hezbollah fighters.
During the last round of negotiations that took place between the two parties in Rome under American sponsorship in August, the Lebanese government called on Israel to release a first batch of these detainees, according to what an official Lebanese source told Agence France-Presse at the time.
Netanyahu's office linked the release of the five civilians to "intensive efforts" made by both Lebanon and Israel, following the Rome round of talks, to determine the burial place of Lebanese Jewish figures who were kidnapped and killed in Lebanon in the mid-eighties, during the civil war (1975-1990).
The official Lebanese source told Agence France-Presse after the last round of negotiations that the Israeli delegation handed Lebanon a list of names of those whose remains it demands to return.
Recent months have witnessed Lebanese and Israeli operations to search for the remains, which included field activities, without revealing their nature or results.
The family of the released man Malek Ghazi, who is from the town of Ain Ata in the Bekaa Valley, near the border town of Shebaa with Israel in the south, announced in October 2025 that they had lost contact with him after he went out to exercise, and it later became clear that he was being held by Israel.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement on Thursday that “the safe return of any liberated Lebanese to his homeland constitutes an important step on the way to addressing this issue,” and he thanked “the American administration, especially Ambassador Michel Issa, for the efforts made in this field.”
Salam pledged to continue working "until all our prisoners are released, the fate of the missing is revealed, and complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory is achieved."
The Lebanese Prime Minister added: “No matter how difficult the negotiating path may seem, we will continue to mobilize all required efforts to preserve the rights of Lebanon and the interests of the Lebanese.”
