BEIRUT: Relatives of Lebanese seized by Israel during its last two wars with Hezbollah held a rally in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut on Wednesday to demand information.
Israel is estimated to have seized dozens of people in Lebanon since 2024, including Hezbollah fighters but also numerous civilians. Its military occasionally reports capturing Hezbollah fighters.
In its last round of negotiations with Israel, Lebanon demanded the release of a first batch of people seized from Lebanese territory, a Lebanese official told AFP.
“We want (the ICRC) to go in and just reassure us on his health,” said Ibtissam Hussein a 54-year-old mother of three holding a picture of her husband Waddah Younes.
Younes, a Hezbollah member, was captured while fighting Israeli troops in Blida, southern Lebanon in October 2024, she said.
The Israeli military released a video of Younes at the time being interrogated and said he was arrested inside a tunnel in the town.
Hussein received no news of him until Israel released four Lebanese in March last year, who confirmed he was alive but in poor health.
“We will not abandon our prisoners. We will keep on standing (with them) and raising our voices,” Hussein said.
‘We need to know’
Hezbollah in 2023 attacked Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza, leading to over a year of hostilities that escalated into a full-blown war in 2024.
Two years later, it drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran by launching rockets at Israel.
Israel responded with heavy air strikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.
Authorities do not have a full list of those seized, the official said.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Al-Hajj Hassan said before the start of this year’s war that Lebanon had “20 prisoners at the hands of the enemy,” at least nine of them “captured during the war on the battlefield,” indicating that they were fighters from the group.
Anwar Yassine, founder of the Committee of Representatives of Prisoners and Released Detainees, estimated that at least 32 people were seized, including 22 civilians.
Yassine himself was jailed for nearly two decades by Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 90s.
Hezbollah and its supporters reject the talks and the agreement, with the group refusing to lay down its arms.
Zainab Bahja, a mother of two whose husband Hassan Hammoud was seized after returning to his southern hometown during a 2024 ceasefire, asked the government to treat the issue “as a priority.”
Bahja, her daughter next to her holding her father’s picture, said the Israeli military burned their home after seizing him.
“We need to know if they are still alive,” she said, asking her government to secure their release quickly.
