Today, Lebanon and the Islamic Resistance retrieved the hostages, internees and martyrs’ bodies, who, what they offered for the sake of the homeland and nation, had honored and dignified Lebanon and its people.

The Homecoming Militants (1):
At noon, the buses of International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), carrying the freed hostages and internees, arrived at the liberated areas passing across Kfar Falous crossing point. Upon their arrival, they had been received by the masses including the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and representatives of Hizbullah, Amal Movement, Communist Party, Social National Syrian Party and Lebanese Army in addition to their families.

Hizbullah’s Secretary General H.E. Sayed Hassan Nassrallah phoned afternoon the Speaker Nabih Berri comforting him over Amal’s martyrs and thanking him for his role in facilitating the operation. In his turn, Berri consoled Nassrallah about the Islamic Resistance’s martyrs and especially his eldest son Sayed Hadi.

Also, Nassrallah communicated with the Prime Minister Rafik Hariri congratulating him for the success of the operation and thanking him for his role in finalizing it. Hariri, also, offered his condolences concerning the martyrs of Islamic Resistance, and particularly, his firstborn son Hadi describing him as a son of all Lebanese.

The homecoming hostages and internees belong to the villages and towns of South Lebanon and Western Beqaa such as: Hibbarieh, Hermel, Kawkaba, Kfar Hamam, Kounine, Khiam, Maroun El-Ras, Srobbin, Nabatieh, Bent Jbeil, Meis El-Jabal, Talloussa, Houla, Aitaroun, Tair Harfa, Aita El-Chaab, Blat, Markaba, Kfar Kila, Om El-Tout, Showaya, Yarin, Beit Yahoun & Shebaa in addition to Beirut.

With their fists raised, they got out of the buses: They came back home but no political demands or costly bargain were paid for.

They needed no one to assure them that the operation had accomplished without concessions being made.

Also, they heard and knew well about the abortive “Israeli” naval commandos at Insarieh, which was the decisive factor for releasing them as well as the martyrs’ bodies.

Following the Lebanese Army checkpoint at Kfar Falous, they were greeted by Rafik Hariri who was awaiting them at his house. “The freed internees must be given their rights and the government should assume its responsibilities towards them and their families… we will do everything to reintegrate the internee into the society as a redemption for what they offered for the sake of their homeland”.

Lebanon’s President Elias Hirawi addressed the Lebanese saying: “Lebanon had succeeded because its nationals, who still reject the “Israeli” occupation forces, are held by their right, and because they backed up the government which achieved with high competence this step”.

The homecomings are fifty five hostages. They are distributed as follows: 36 are Hizbullah’s members, thirteen belong to Amal Movement, seven are members of the Communist Party, one belongs to the Social National Syrian Party and the others are various affiliations. Of 167 internees still detained, 125 are detained in Khiam concentration camp and 42 others in “Israel’s” jails.

What did the hostages say? (2):

Militant Adel Tormos:
Q: As a liberated hostage, how do you feel?
A: First of all, I greet the venerated martyrs and I wish for the live martyrs who are still in the concentration camps to be released. By the way two days ago, 62-year-old internee had died as a result of the Zionism’s barbarian and savage, after he had spent 28 years in the prison… God willing, we will do our best in order to release all detainees.

Q: Did you expect inside the prison that in a certain day you may be released?
A: No, we have known about the exchange operation when we were inside the jail. As a result of the “Israeli” obstinacy, I felt that there is no possibility for the hostage detained in “Israel’s” jails to be released… but, praise be to God!

Q: What about the detention conditions?
A: I had been interned in 1986 during Kounine operation, through which Hizbullah captured two Jews, as our group was retreating from the scene near Baraasheit village. Of the internees also was Mohammad Yassine.

Q: How do you outline your suffering inside the Jail?
A: I had sustained a solitary confinement for about six months. After I had been tried and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, I had transported to Asqalan Central Prison where I suffered various kinds of physical and psychological torture. But praise be to God, the hostages’ morale were always very high. Were it not for my disease, I would prefer that another internee be released…

Q: From what did you suffer?
A: I had been sustained the meningitis. Over the past year, I had moved between three hospitals for treatment.

Q: But to a certain extent, you seem as if you are in a better state than your inmates?
A: This isn’t normal state. I am sustaining an inflation state because the cortisone medicaments that  I had taken them for about last six months!

Q: Did you easily acquaint with your family members?
A: Yes, I had known all my family members even my sister, 13, who had been born one month before I was arrested. This because they were sending their photographs with the International Committee for the Red Cross.

Q: Will you resume again the way of struggle?
A: Of course, it is a pledge I made it by myself that I will continue the way of struggle until the last inch of our occupied lands be liberated. God willing, we will overcome “Israel” and release the remaining internees whom I promise to do everything in order to release them.

Nabih Awada:
He was apprehended on September 1988 during a military operation at Deir Siryan area. He is one of 42 internees still captured inside the “Israeli” jails such as Asqalan, Nafha, Ramla and others.

“Their morale are very high and I don’t wish to talk about their sufferance which are very tough. Moreover, some are undergoing exceptional and arduous conditions such as Sheikh Abdel-Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani who had been put in solitary confinement since the date of their detention”, he said.

Awada added: “I had heard the news about the exchange operation via radios and the internees’ lawyers who were coordinating with the Follow-up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in “Israel’s” jails. At the beginning, I didn’t believe that I will among the released hostages. This is because we had been excluded from several past exchange operations”.

Awada is so glad “for it is extremely great for one to return his home, family and comrades”, adding “at the same time, I am missing, at these moments, my inmates. I willn’t feel deep happiness unless the other internees be released”.

He talked about the internee Anwar Yassine saying: “He rushed to applaud so high. This made us to feel with comfort and happiness on getting out of the capture”.

He, finally, asserted that the resistance should continue as long as the “Israeli” forces occupy our land.

As-Safir newspaper made several quick interview with the following internees:
 - Akram Alaouieh, Maroun El-Ras: “I have been held prisoner thirteen years ago during which I underwent several kinds of torture, but I remained firm. Now, it is so important to do hard for the remaining internees be released, because many of them are suffering dangerous diseases and have health problems”.

 - Ali Hazimeh, Srobbin: “I had been apprehended at Khiam concentration camp for about twelve years. We had paid the tax of liberating our land from the enemy. Our reward is that we had been released. Whatever the case may be, “Israel” shall be our enemy”…

 - Mohammad Fneish, Khiam: “I had been prisoned at Khiam detention center thirteen years ago. When I was arrested I was eighteen years old. The internees had suffered so much and this needs a lot of volumes to be interpreted. The Lebanese government and ICRC should work quickly for carrying out another swaps because some of the detainees are badly in need of the health care”.

 - Ahmad Ismail had served ten years imprisonment at Asqalan jail. We couldn’t talk with him because his family members rushed to embrace him. “ shortly, I’ll meet you and explain the internees’ conditions inside “Israel’s” jails, he said.

 - Fadi Ali: “I had spent twelve years imprisonment at Khiam concentration camp. When I was held prisoner I was seventeen years old. I had exposed to various kinds of torture…. Now, it is so significant to seek after releasing the left over hostages”. Upon getting out of Hariri’s palace, Ali demanded that he will drive the car in returning to his house in Beirut, and so was.

 - Ali Hamdoun: “The detention experience taught us how to be strong and that our people’s will shall overcome the occupier at the end”. He had served ten years imprisonment.

 - Afif Hammoud: “My morale is so high and more than you can imagine. The options that I had adopted will be the same”.

 - Zohair Daher: “I had been captured for about eight years. Currently, it is important to resume my life normally and think about how we should do to liberate the other internees left inside “Israel’s” detention camps”.

Nassrallah says goodbye to his martyr son (3):
With the scent of perfume filling the air, Sayed Hassan Nassrallah stroked the shrouded body of his eldest son and murmured a prayer. No tears, no drama, not a word. The body of 18-year-old Hadi was among 40 repatriated on Thursday night in the first stage of the swap with “Israel”. Hadi’s body and those of 27 fellow Hizbullah fighters were displayed yesterday at the Imam El-Mahdi school in Ouzai, where workers prepared them for burial.

Hizbullah’s Secretary General arrived at the school for the first glimpse of his son since he was killed in a guerilla raid against “Israeli” forces in the occupation zone on September 13. Confidently, Nassrallah walked into a room, where seven coffins were lined up, with Hadi’s marked No 13, the date of his death.

Accompanied by Hadi’s teenage brother, Jawad, Nassrallah first paid his respects to the other six, resting his palm gently on the lids of the coffins as he murmured the Fat’ha, the opening verse of the Koran.

Arriving at Hadi’s coffin, he turned to an aide and whispered softly. Relief workers from Hizbullah’s own Islamic Health Association, with white surgical masks covering their faces, were ushered in to remove the lid, exposing the white shroud covering the body. Nassrallah rested both of his hands on the edge of the coffin. For more than two minutes, eyes shut and lips moving, he prayed. He then bent over and gently stroked his lost son’s head before resting his palm on the fallen youth’s chest.
With photographers and cameramen jostling noisily, he lifted his head and stared at them for moment.

The room fell silent again.

Without a word, he straightened up, turned to Jawad and then walked out of the room with the same expressionless look he had carried when he entered the school. His pale son and bodyguards followed.

Inside, Hizbullah activists scrambled to sign their names on Hadi’s shroud before the relief workers sealed the coffin.

According to one member of Hizbullah’s civil defense team who was present at the school, the bodies of Hadi Nassrallah and Ali Khatoun were the only two which had been preserved in a refrigerated morgue at an “Israeli” hospital.

The remaining bodies had been interred and exhumed the night before the swap.

The relief workers said that they had been working non-stop since midnight on Thursday to identify the remains and to otherwise prepare the bodies for burial following a mass funeral that will take place, this afternoon at the Raya football stadium in the southern suburb of Sfeir.

The victorious coming back of militants (4):
Early in the morning, the freed internee’s families had come to Kfar Falous crossing with the aim of receiving them.

The Lebanese Army tries to do its best to organize the reception operation. So, it specified a terrain for the population and permitted the journalists to advance a little bit towards the Army’s checkpoint.

ICRC’s Public Relations Official Mohsen El-Jamal declared, at 10:30am, that the convoy of internees, escorted by ICRC’s Head Jean Jacques Fresard, will leave Khiam concentration camp after half an hour.

In the meantime, several delegations and dignitaries had arrived at the crossing. Among the delegations was Hizbullah’s which included the MPs Mohammad Raad, Mohammad Fneish, Abdallah Qassir and Nazih Monsour in addition to the Politburo member Abou Saeid El-Khansa. Amal’s delegation involved Ali Khreis, Ali Hassan Khalil, Mohammad Obeid, Qabalan Qabalan and Ahmad El-Baalbacki.

Also, MPs Mustafa Saad and Marwan Fares, the Communist Party’s Secretary General Farouq Dahrouj, France’s Charge’ d’affaires Antoine Sigan and delegations of Jamaa Islamieh and General Union for Workers headed by Walid Jwaidi were among the attendance.

The promised convoy, surmounted by ICRC flag, was seen passing through Sfaray hill at 12:45pm. About one O’clock afternoon the crowd shouted loudly say: Allahu Akbar i.e. God is Great.

The hostages who were apprehended at Khiam detention camp were carried by two buses, one of which is big and the other is of middle size. The hostages who were held prisoners in “Israel’s” jails had been transported by one middle size bus while the internee Hussein Mokdad was moved by an ambulance. The convoy was led by a jeep for Police Forces and another one related to ICRC.

The convoy stopped at the Army’s checkpoint where three representatives of Hizbullah, Amal Movement and the Communist Party escorted by the Lebanese Army officers had gone towards it so as to be assure of the names and number agreed upon.

At 1:45pm, the journalists and cameramen were granted permission to advance towards the checkpoint. Then, the convoy barely went forward for the crowded people rushed to shake hostages’ hands.

The Army tried, fruitlessly, to keep away the youngsters, women and old men who hanged with the buses. The hostages, in their turn, get out of the windows. Really, it is highly impressive scene.
It took about one hour for the parade to cover the distance between Ain El-Mir and Majdalyoun where Hariri’s palace.

Hariri addressed the mass saying: “Yesterday, Lebanon received some of its martyrs. Today, we came to meet some of the internees. Still, there are martyrs and there are internees. We promise the families of martyrs and internees that the government will save no efforts to release all the internees, retrieve all the martyr’ corpses and liberate every inch of the Lebanese land”.

He added: “The freed internees shall be given their rights and the government had to own its responsibilities towards them and their families. We will do everything to facilitate the re-integration process of the freed internees into the society”.

Reactions to Swap:
France’s President Jacques Chirac (5) expressed his satisfaction over finalizing, successfully, the exchange operation “as it  was agreed upon”. He considered “himself as the guarantor” of this operation. “The work done by ICRC was unique and exceptional” describing the operation as “a significant humanitarian one”.

“Israel’s” Defense Minister Yitzhac Mordechai (6) reassured Lahd’s Militia that swap willn’t influence on its fate and future. He, also, disclosed that U.S.A Secretary of State Madeline Albright had interfered with the aim of facilitating the operation.

However, the news reported that the family of the “Israeli” soldier (7), who blow into pieces at Insarieh, had demanded “Israel’s” Prime Minister to dismiss delivering a speech during the funeral.

Negotiations as seen by the “Israelis” (8):
“Israel’s” Defense Minister disclosed that the negotiations had been accomplished with an American and French aid.

“Israel’s” top negotiator Jacoub Beri was quoted as saying: “The negotiations with the Lebanese government were tough and, at times, witnessed an ebb and flow”.

For its part, the “Israeli” newspaper Haaretz reported a long account about the negotiations track. Here are the excerpts:

Shortly after the abortive “Israeli” naval commando raid on Insarieh last year, “Israel” demanded ICRC to work for the purpose of retrieving the remains of Itamar Iliya who was blown into pieces.

However, Netanyahu requested France’s President Jacques Chirac for mediating with Lebanese government. Few days later, President Chirac handed over “Israel” the Lebanese response which asserted that Iliya’s body parts are in its hands.

One day after Hadi Nassrallah and his two comrades had martyrized i.e. on September 13-1997, ICRC conveyed a message from Hariri, in which he agreed to negotiate on condition that all the Lebanese hostages held prisoners at Khiam detention center and all martyrs’ corpses belonging to Hizbullah and Amal Movement must be restored.

“Israel” replied negatively and stipulated that Iliya’s body parts in return for corpses, and that the negotiations ought to be with Lebanon’s government. But ten days later, Beri informed ICRC that “Israel” is ready for releasing some of the detainees.

The months followed, a wide communications had been taken place between the two parties via ICRC and with the help provided by the French government.
Lebanon’s government asked the French government to guarantee any agreement signed by “Israel”, and so it was.

On December 5-1997, Hariri demanded that one hundred detainees, two thirds of whom captured at Khiam concentration camp, should be released. “Israel” rejected and ,instead, looked for direct negotiations. Hariri, in his turn, refused but he accepted accelerating the negotiations.

Unfortunately, the negotiations had slowed down during this period. This is because of “Israel’s” offer over withdrawing from South Lebanon in accordance with its own interpretation of the UN Resolution 425.

Only at the end of last May, a real progress had occurred. Then, Ezer Weizman, “Israel’s” President, sent an urgent message to Chirac, who was about to begin a visit to Lebanon.

In the wake of Weizman’s request, Chirac broached to his host Hariri, the idea of an exchange: Iliya’s body in return for the bodies of Hizbullah fighters and the release of Lebanese detainees being held in “Israel”.

On June 3, Hizbullah’s Secretary General H.E. Sayed Hassan Nassrallah said the preparations for carrying out the swap had been agreed on.

On June 10, several obstacles had come to the surface as Amal Movement expressed its rejection of the deal under the pretense that the number of detainees intended to be released is insufficient. But Hariri left for Damascus where he was given the greenlight and Amal drew, then, its rejection.

As Lebanese government agreed to executing the deal, work began in exhuming the corpses from two cemeteries located at north of “Israel”.

Nevertheless, fears emerged on the next day as two “Israeli” soldiers killed when Hizbullah fighters set off a roadside bomb in South Lebanon. But in “Israel”, the attack wasn’t seen as an intentional work designed to impede the swap. The “Israeli” sources said this attack is an attempt made by Hizbullah to show that “things go well and as usual” and that there is no any link between restoring the martyrs’ corpses and continuation of the fighting.

At eight O’clock evening of June 25-1998, a French military plane touched down at “Israel’s” Air Force base at Lidd on its board Iliya’s body parts. Two hours later, the plane flew to Beirut Airport carrying forty corpses belong to Hizbullah and Amal Movement.

Lebanese dignitaries’ attitudes over the swap (9) (hostages)
 ? Lebanon’s Casuistry assured “the sacred struggle (Jihad) for sake of God must continue until God’s promise and victory be achieved”.
 ? Jamaa Islamiah’s (Islamic Community) Secretary General Sheikh Faisal Mawlawi greeted “the homecoming internees and the heroes martyrs”.
 ? MP Anwar El-Khalil considered the swap as “a new victory for Lebanon and resistance which is asserting, day after day, its credibility over liberating the last inch of Lebanese national land”.
 ? Former MP Habib Sadeq said that “it so important that the Lebanese people, from all over Lebanon, had rushed to Beirut Airport and Kfar Falous crossing for the purpose of meeting, with tribute and great respect, the eternal martyrs and the heroes coming home from the captured. All those are symbols of the patriotism and titles of encouragement and sacrifice”.
 ? The Secretary General of Democratic Front for Liberation of Palestine cabled congratulating with the success of  liberating the internees and martyrs’ corpses who martyrized during the heroic confrontation with the “Israeli” occupation forces stationed in South Lebanon”.
UN fines “Israel” 2,4 million Dollars (10):
UN’s General Assembly fines “Israel” 2,4 million Dollars as a compensation for shelling the Unifil base at Qana village during the massacre which resulted in martyrizing more than one hundred Lebanese civilians on April 1996. Imposing the fine had been agreed by the majority of 68 members vis-à-vis two had refused the decision, whereas forty one member refrained from the vote.
The decision allocated 1,258 million Dollars for the Unifil. Also, UN Secretary General had been empowered to take the necessary procedures in order to secure that “Israel” should pay back 1.77 million Dollars in a similar issued last year. The new decision enforced “Israel” to pay additional costs estimated as 639356 Dollars.
An “Israeli” official, preferred anonymous, described the decision as “silly”.
“Israeli” Aggressions:
In Eastern Sector, the “Israeli” gunners shelled, at dawn, Litani River bands and Mazraat Loussi with a number of mortar missiles. This was accompanied by firing heavy machine gun rounds at the perimeters of Dallafeh and Qilya villages and the heights of Zahr Mountain and Ahmadieh.
However, the Islamic Resistance (11) issued a statement in which it mentioned the following “Israeli” aggressions:
10:00, the lightened helicopters soared very high over the coastline of Sarafand and Teffahta.
10:05, the reconnaissance planes flew in the airspace of Iqleem Al-Tuffah heights.
Lahd’s Blazes (13)
The population of the liberated villages adjacent to the green line demanded the competent authorities to set up a fire department and civil defense center at their villages so as to rescue their olive and grapes groves from the blazes fabricated by Lahd’s militiamen during this Summer season.
It is worth mentioning that the “Israeli” surrogates had enkindled, yesterday, a fire at Meimess area destroying wide areas of olive orchards.
Footnotes:
1- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:1 and 20.
2- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:6.
3- The Daily Star, 27-6-1998.
4- As-Safir 27-6-1998, p:5.
5- Same source.
6- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:20.
7- Same source.
8- Same source.
9- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:7.
10- Al-Nahar, 27-6-1998, p:3.
11- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:1.
12- Islamic Resistance statement, 26-6-1998.
13- As-Safir, 27-6-1998, p:7.