ISRAEL: BODIES OF TWO HIZBOLLAH FIGHTERS HANDED OVER TO RED CROSS OFFICIALS NEAR THE LEBANESE BORDER AT NAQOURA.

Record ID: 376112

  • Title: ISRAEL: BODIES OF TWO HIZBOLLAH FIGHTERS HANDED OVER TO RED CROSS OFFICIALS NEAR THE LEBANESE BORDER AT NAQOURA.
  • Date: 25th August 2003
  • Summary: (EUROPE) NAQOURA, ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER, ISRAEL (AUGUST 25, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. TRACK: ISRAELI TRUCK WITH TROOPS ARRIVES AND DRIVES THROUGH CHECKPOINT GATES. 0.11 2. MLV: ISRAELI SOLDIERS GUARDING AREA WITH RED CROSS AMBULANCE ON OTHER SIDE OF GATE. 0.17 3. VARIOUS: OF CONVOY ARRIVING AT LEBANESE SIDE OF BORDER AND DRIVING THROUGH GATE. 0.26 4. MV: RED CROSS AMBULANCE WITH STRETCHER INSIDE ON LEBANESE SIDE OF GATE. 0.32 5. MLV: TRUCKS ARRIVE WITHBODIES TO BE TRANSFERRED ON STRETCHERS THROUGH BORDER 0.50 6. MV: MORE OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS GUARDING AS HANDOVER TAKES PLACE AT BORDER GATE. 0.58 7. WS: BORDER GATE CROSSING. 1.03 8. VARIOUS: TRUCKS AT BORDER GATE CROSSING WITH BODIES ON BOARD. 1.16 9. MLV: ISRAELI TROOPS AT BORDER GATE. 1.23 10. WS/ZOOM IN/MLV: SECURITY AT BORDER GATE WITH RED CROSS AMBULANCES ON OTHER SIDE OF GATE. 1.33 12. PEOPLE WAITING ON THE BORDER. 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAQOURA, ISRAELI-LEBANESE BORDER, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Lebanon Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZAB2NLVW0LPL19JFXW4EJOCE
  • Story Text: Israel has handed over the bodies of two Hizbollah
    fighters to the Red Cross.



    Israel handed over the bodies of two Hizbollah
    guerrilla group's fighters to officials of the
    International Committee of the Red Cross near the Lebanese
    border on Monday (August 25).

    An Israeli security source said that in exchange,
    Israel would receive information on Israelis captured by
    Hizbollah.

    One of the fighters was killed in a 1999 suicide attack
    on an Israeli convoy in then-Israeli occupied southern
    Lebanon. The other was killed in a clash in the area with
    Israeli troops a year earlier. The group, which is
    backed by Iran and Syria, seized
    three Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon frontier in
    October 2000 and weeks later said it captured a reserve
    Israeli army officer, who it accused of being a spy for
    Israel's Mossad agency.

    The handover comes a month after Hizbollah threatened
    to kidnap more Israeli soldiers unless there was progress
    on stalled prisoner swap talks.

    Hizbollah, which has long campaigned for the release of
    about 15 Lebanese prisoners from Israeli jails, said last
    Saturday it was close to a resolution on the fate of the
    detainees.

    "Hizbollah will receive the pure bodies of the martyred
    Ammar Hussein Hammoud and the martyr Ghassan Zaatar from
    the International Committee of the Red Cross in the town of
    Naqoura, and that will be at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT)," a
    Hizbollah statement said.

    Hizbollah seized three Israeli soldiers in a disputed
    border area in October 2000, months after Israeli troops
    pulled out of Lebanon following a 22-year occupation.

    Israel believes the three are now dead.

    Weeks later the Syrian and Iranian-backed group said it
    had captured reserve officer Elhanan Tenenbaum, claiming he
    was a Mossad agent.

    The ICRC said it would take custody of the bodies
    and turn them over to family members.

    "This is definitely not a (prisoner) swap," said
    Antoine Bieler, ICRC head of delegation in Lebanon. "At
    least for today this is a unilateral move from one side to
    the other."
    Tensions between Israel and Hizbollah have surged since
    Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah threatened last
    month to seize more Israelis unless there was a
    breakthrough in talks.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register