Lebanon receives first of five detainees Israel says it will release

Lebanon received the first of five detainees Israel says it will release, opening a closely watched humanitarian handover between the two countries. The Lebanese army said it received Malek Ghazi from the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday and took him to an army intelligence headquarters in the southern city of Tyre.

Israel’s prime minister’s office said five Lebanese civilians had been arrested in areas under Israeli army control in southern Lebanon. After their interrogation, it said, authorities determined that they were civilians, had not joined any terrorist organization and had not engaged in terrorism. A Lebanese official said the other four detainees, two Lebanese and two Syrians, would be released on Friday instead.

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It was decided to release five Lebanese civilians who were arrested in areas under Israeli army control in southern Lebanon.

The official described the release as a prelude to continuing Lebanon-Israel talks in Rome. The ICRC said a humanitarian operation was under way. Lebanese authorities have not publicly disclosed how many people Israel seized during the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war and a later 2026 conflict, but families and a committee working on the cases have compiled a list of more than 30 people. It includes at least one Syrian national and several Hezbollah fighters.

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Until the release of all our prisoners

Ghazi’s family, from Ain Ata in southeastern Lebanon, said in October last year that it had lost contact with him after he went out to exercise. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed his release and thanked the American administration for its efforts. He said Lebanon would continue working for the release of all prisoners, clarification of the fate of missing people and an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

The announcement also followed Israeli and Lebanese efforts to locate and return the remains of leaders of Lebanon’s Jewish community who were abducted and killed during the country’s 15-year civil war in the 1980s. Israel’s military said in August that it had recovered the remains of a soldier killed in eastern Lebanon in 1982.

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The disclosure of the fate of the missing