PMO: Israel to Release Five Lebanese in ‘Gesture’ to Beirut

By: Akiva Van Koningsveld & Amelie Botbol

Israel has agreed to release five Lebanese detained during operations against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier on Tuesday, “IDF representatives, and representatives from the U.S., France and Lebanon, met in Naqoura, Lebanon,” the PMO said.

They agreed to “form three joint working groups, the objective of which is to stabilize the area and focus on the following issues: The five points under IDF control in Southern Lebanon, discussions on the Blue Line [de facto border] and points still in dispute, and the issue of Lebanese detainees being held by Israel,” per the statement from Jerusalem.

“In coordination with the U.S. and as a gesture to the new president of Lebanon, Israel has agreed to release five Lebanese detainees,” it added.

The statement did not name the individuals set for release and whether or not they were members of the Hezbollah terror group. According to Al-Jazeera, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross was on its way to transfer the prisoners to Lebanon.

In an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed television channel shortly before the PMO issued its statement, Morgan Ortagus, U.S. deputy special envoy to the Mideast, confirmed that a “civilian working group” was launched to address diplomatic issues between Israel and Lebanon.

Ortagus said the United States was working on making the Lebanese Armed Forces the sole authority in Hezbollah-dominated Southern Lebanon.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-linked Al Akhbar newspaper reported that Jerusalem was set to return to Lebanon five individuals arrested by the Israel Defense Forces, as well as a Lebanese soldier.

The IDF confirmed on Tuesday that a Lebanese individual, shot by Israeli soldiers after approaching the border on Monday, had been evacuated for treatment in a hospital inside the Jewish state.

According to the Lebanese Armed Forces, the wounded individual in question was an LAF soldier wearing civilian clothes.

The Israeli military did not confirm that the individual was a member of the LAF or where the incident occurred, saying only that its soldiers had acted according to “standard operating procedures” during the incident.

The situation in Lebanon remains volatile following the end of the truce with Beirut on Feb. 18. The ceasefire, which went into effect on Nov. 27, ended more than a year of war after Hezbollah began launching attacks on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the Hmas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF confirmed last month that its forces would remain in five outposts in Southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline. The decision was made in conjunction with the U.S. administration.

Also on Tuesday, an Israeli drone strike killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Abbas Izzedine, a senior commander in its aerial-defense unit, the IDF stated.

Izzedine “served as a central knowledge hub in Hezbollah’s air-defense system and led efforts to rehabilitate the system after it was significantly damaged during combat from IDF attacks,” according to the military.

In recent months, the terrorist “continued to advance the system’s efforts to acquire new weaponry,” the IDF stated, calling Izzedine’s efforts a “direct threat to Israeli aircraft” over Southern Lebanon.

In another strike, an Israeli Air Force craft attacked “a number of terrorists who were identified at a site used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Froun region of Southern Lebanon,” the IDF said.

          (JNS.org)