🔻Israel announced it will release five Lebanese civilians

Israel said on Thursday that it has decided to release five Lebanese civilians it had detained in southern Lebanon.

Parts of southern Lebanon near the border are under Israeli occupation.

A statement from the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said: “After the end of interrogations, it became clear that they are civilians, are not members of any terrorist organization, have not been involved in terrorist acts, and there is no reason to continue holding them in Israel.”

The statement added: “This action comes in the wake of Israel’s and Lebanon’s efforts to find and return the bodies of leaders of the Jewish community in Lebanon who were abducted and murdered in the 1980s.”

As reported by AFP, a Lebanese official said in August that, in the latest round of negotiations with Israel, Lebanon had requested the release of its citizens who have been held by Israel since the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanese officials have not officially announced the number of their citizens who were detained by Israel during that war and the subsequent war in 2026, but a list of more than 30 people has been compiled by their families and a committee that follows up on their cases.