Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Israel would set five Lebanese civilians free after Beirut helped retrieve the remains of slain Lebanese Jews, as part of the two countries’ US-brokered peace talks.
Israel has already released one of the five, Malek Kamal Ghazi, who was captured in October 2025. He was handed over by the Red Cross to Lebanese authorities at the Naqoura crossing, a Lebanese security source and a source at the prisoners’ commission told Reuters. The sources said 35 Lebanese detainees remained in Israel, including 20 civilians.
The handover of the four other Lebanese nationals set to be released by Israel was delayed until Friday at 11 a.m., the Lebanese broadcaster LBCI reported, without giving a reason for the delay.
Confirming earlier Israeli media reports, the Prime Minister’s Office said that Israel had decided “to release five Lebanese civilians who were detained in areas of southern Lebanon under IDF control.”
“It became clear” after the five detainees were interrogated that they “are civilians who are not members of a terrorist organization, were not involved in terrorism, and there is no reason to keep holding them in Israel,” the PMO added.
