Remembering men who sacrificed for liberation  
Zeina Mobassaleh reports on the fate of those still languishing in “Israeli” prisons after being captured while fighting to liberate the South

A year ago Wednesday, residents of the South broke into the notorious Khiam detention center, severing locks and kicking in doors to free their loved ones. It was by far one of the most emotional moments of the liberation, but the anniversary cannot be marked without remembering the prisoners who are still held in “Israel”.
Eleven men who fought against the occupation remain in “Israeli” prisons, despite condemnation from international human-rights groups.
Some are being held as bargaining chips for the return of “Israeli” pilot Ron Arad, who was shot down over south Lebanon during the “Israeli” occupation. Many have reported being severely tortured and beaten, even raped, by their guards.
Fadi Jazzar, of Palestinian origin, was born in Beirut and is the second-youngest child in a family of eight boys. He was captured in 1991 at the age of 20 while carrying out a guerrilla operation against the town of Zaarit in northern “Israel” opposite Marwahine in south Lebanon.
The operation conducted an attack against an “Israeli” patrol. While two of the fighters were killed immediately, Jazzar hid in a deserted house in nearby woods until he was wounded two days later when “Israeli” troops strafed the area with machine-gun fire.
“He conducted the operation as an objection to the Madrid Peace Conference because it sold out Palestine and was a surrender and an acceptance of the Zionist entity’s occupation,” his brother Khaled said.
Jazzar was denied medical treatment in Nafah Prison by the “Israeli” authorities and was threatened with solitary confinement if he so much as said “ouch,” said Khaled.
It was only because his fellow prisoners smuggled antibiotics to him that his injuries healed.
“For a while we thought that he was paralyzed on one side because he always sent us pictures of him sitting down. But when some fellow detainees came back, we found out that he was fine,” said Khaled.
Jazzar is serving a 25-year sentence in Nafha Prison.
Sheikh Abdel-Karim Obeid has been detained in “Israel” for the last 12 years after being kidnapped from his home in Jibsheet during an “Israeli” commando operation.
His youngest of five children, Majahida was only three months old when it happened, but she is able to recount the story clearly.
“He was captured because he used to train people in the resistance and was getting in the way of the “Israelis”,” she said. “They just got bothered by him and took him away.”
According to Majahida, the “Israelis” approached the home from the nearby valley and blasted the door using a concussion grenade. It was the middle of the night and she was asleep next to him when they came in and locked everyone in their rooms.
Obeid, a leader in Hizbullah, tried to escape from the balcony but discovered that the whole house was surrounded. He was tied up, drugged and whisked away in a getaway car.
The sheikh originally obtained a degree in architecture from the Lebanese University in 1977, but was teaching religion in the Mustafa school at the time of his arrest.
The children have all grown to love their father through stories they hear about him, even though the first time most of them remember seeing him was on television six months ago during his trial in “Israel”.
One of the few letters that has reached his family through the International Committee of the Red Cross asked his sons to kiss the hands of those who captured the “Israeli” soldiers last October because they will bring him his freedom.
“The years used to pass by quickly with him gone,” said Majahida. “But we feel these few months more than all the others before because now we’re just waiting.”
Obeid is being held at Sarafand Prison in Tel Aviv.

Mustafa Dirani was kidnapped on May 21, 1994 from his home in Qsarnaba in the Bekaa in a huge “Israeli” commando operation.
It was the middle of the night during Eid al-Adha when the doors to the house were suddenly broken down and more than 70 “Israeli” commandos surrounded the area.
His wife and one of his five children were interrogated in one room while he was tied up in another. The 43-year-old resistance fighter was then hustled into a car and taken away.
Dirani had finished two years of his law degree before he joined the Lebanese Army in 1970. When the war began, he joined Amal and became head of security. Although he broke away from the group, he continued to support the resistance.
He tried several times to finish his university degree, but was deterred for “security reasons. But he wanted to become a lawyer and defend people’s rights,” said his wife Zeinab. “He ended up defending the land and people in a different way.”
With education high on his list of priorities in life, Dirani encouraged his wife to pursue a university degree in English literature.
“He’s very aware and wise and respects women and the role they could play,” said Zeinab. “He had a love of education and always told the children that he wanted them to go to college.”
Dirani, who has filed a lawsuit in “Israel” accusing his guards of severe torture and rape, has spent the last seven years in solitary confinement in Sarafand Prison. The only news his family receives about him comes from the media. “Israeli” authorities have prohibited the exchange of any letters, even through the route of the International Committee for the Red Cross.
“When the three “Israeli” soldiers were taken, not a country was left that didn’t lobby for their release. We’ve been shouting for seven years and no one’s listened,” Zeinab complained. “Don’t we have the right to defend our land when it’s being attacked?”

Ali Balhass, a resident of the front-line village of Siddiqine, lived most of his life enduring regular “Israeli” shelling.
He was 24 years old when he was detained in 1992 while carrying out an attack near Yater in south Lebanon.
Balhass graduated from high school before becoming a fighter with Hizbullah.
“But we didn’t know about his operations, because as usual, all of it is secretive,” said his younger brother Hussein.
According to Hussein, Balhass was a strong student who was always at the top of his class.
“He was exemplary in his way of life and always treated people with kindness and helped those in need,” he said.
Ali is serving a life sentence in Nafha Prison. 
Youssef Wazni from Tibnin in Bint Jbeil was born in 1960.
He was abducted in 1988 and is serving a 25-year sentence in Nafha Prison. He was never married. Family members could not be reached to provide more information for this story.
Jawad Kasfi was born in 1962 in the village of Sultaniyeh. He was abducted in 1988. Kasfi was married and had one child. He is serving a 20-year sentence in Nafha Prison. Family members did not wish to be interviewed for this story.
Thirty-year-old Hassan Ankoni was defending his village of Maidoun near Meshghara against “Israeli” soldiers in the former occupied south when he was detained in 1988.
While 18 other Hizbullah fighters were killed, he sustained a foot injury during the fighting, and was captured and taken to “Israel”.
Because Ankoni never received proper medical treatment for his foot injury, he has difficulty walking, according to his wife Leila.
Leila remarked on his dedication to his children.
“He used to take his (then-3-year-old) son everywhere with him and show him “Israeli” positions and teach him about Jihad (holy war) and patience,” said Leila. “He dreamed of simply raising his children in a peaceful environment, but “Israel” came and destroyed those dreams. His daughter doesn’t even know him.”
Although Leila has been in a regular correspondence with her husband with International Committee for the Red Cross, she complains that it has been 14 years since she has seen him. “I live on this hope that I will see him again. It’s what keeps me going.”
Ankoni has four years left of the 18-year sentence that he is serving in Nafha Prison.
Mustafa Hammoud, born in 1970, was detained in 1988.
He was taken from his home in Marakaba, which was under “Israeli” occupation at the time, when he was accused of leading a resistance operation earlier that day.
Hammoud is serving a 20-year sentence in Nafha Prison.
Mohammed Birzawi was born in 1961 and is from Baalbek. He was detained in 1987 while carrying out an operation in the western Bekaa in the occupation zone. Birzawi is serving a 17-year sentence in Ashkelon Prison. He was never married. Family members declined to be interviewed.
Samir Qantar, from from Abay in Aley, is the longest-detained Lebanese held in “Israel”. Imprisoned at 17, the 41-year-old has spent more than half his life in prison.
He was captured in 1979 when he landed in a dinghy in northern “Israel” while trying to kidnap settlers for future prisoner exchanges in what became known as the Nahariya Operation. Two of the fighters were killed, and two others were wounded and captured.
Qantar was sentenced to 542 years ­ 99 years for each of the five “Israelis” killed during his operation and another 47 for hitting an “Israeli” officer during interrogation.
He has since been moved to Nafha Prison, which has become known as the “prison of death.”
Qantar joined the resistance independent of any political party but rather as a Lebanese fighting for the Palestinians. He wanted to send a message to Lebanon, which had just begun its civil war, that sectarianism should not split them and that everyone should sympathize with the Palestinian cause, according to his younger brother, Bassam.
“He wrote us once something that embodies his personality,” said Bassam. “He wrote: ‘Human will is more than we think or imagine, and my own experience proves it.’”
Anwar Yassin from Dalafa in the former occupied zone was only 18 when he was detained by “Israeli” soldiers in 1987. He was participating at the time in a 15-person resistance operation in Mount Hermon that left him with an arm injury.
It was years of living under occupation that compelled him to join the resistance.
“He was not the type who liked violence but participated in operations from a humanist point of view,” explained his older brother Haider. “He felt like a doctor who performs surgery to get rid of an illness. This was just a different kind of operation.”
Yassin was starting his second year of computer programming at an institute in Beirut when he was detained. His brother described him as the quiet and calm member of the family.
“Everyone was surprised when they heard he was taken. No one knew he was in the resistance.”
Yassin is serving a 30-year sentence in “Israel’s” Eyalon Prison.

The Daily Star, 23-5-2001.