The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday it had facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of the four remaining detainees set to be released by Israel, a day after the first man was handed over.
Israel announced on Thursday that it would release the five civilians, amid the two countries’ US-brokered peace talks and after Beirut’s recent assistance in locating the remains of Lebanese Jews killed by Shiite terrorists in the 1980s.
The detainees had been taken into custody in areas of southern Lebanon under the control of the Israel Defense Forces; however, after interrogations, each of the five was determined to be a civilian, unconnected to terror activity.
It was determined that “there is no reason to keep holding them in Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday.
The four freed on Friday were two Lebanese and two Syrian nationals, a Lebanese official who requested anonymity told AFP. The statement from Netanyahu’s office on Thursday had referred to all five as “Lebanese civilians.”
