Israel frees Lebanese captive, 4 more to be released
Israel on Thursday released Lebanese captive Malek Ghazi, who was handed over to the Lebanese Army through the Red Cross.
Israel will also release four more Lebanese captives and return them to Lebanon as a diplomatic “gesture” to the government in Beirut amid ongoing negotiations between the two sides, an Israeli official confirmed.
Israel’s Channel 12 said the move comes in coordination with the U.S. and within the framework of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.
More than 30 Lebanese captives are still believed to be in Israel's custody.
The Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that the issue was discussed this week during a meeting in Jerusalem between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
A Lebanese political source meanwhile told MTV that “the release of one or more captives is a dose of support for direct negotiations, and it had been expected that the first prisoner, Malek Ghazi, would be released yesterday, but it was postponed until today for logistical reasons.”
“Lebanon had been promised, since the (latest Rome) negotiations, that five captives would be released, and it is unknown whether it will receive the other four today or tomorrow,” the source added.
In the seventh round of talks, held in Rome in August 2026 under American mediation, the issue of detainees was an official topic of negotiations. The parties even exchanged initial lists of detainees and missing persons. According to Lebanese sources, Lebanon demanded that the first step be the release of a group of civilian detainees.
Ghazi's family, hailing from the southeastern town of Ain Ata, near the southern border village of Shebaa, said in October last year that they had lost contact with him after he had gone out to exercise.
He is the first citizen held by Israel to be released since the beginning of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in April.
Netanyahu met the two U.S. ambassadors earlier this week as part of discussions over the negotiations with Lebanon.
The prisoner release comes despite Israeli dissatisfaction with a pilot zones arrangement currently underway in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army has argued that the Lebanese Army is not making sufficient progress in clearing Hezbollah infrastructure from villages included in the pilot area.
Source: Naharnet
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