- Title: LEBANON: 60 BODIES OF HIZBOLLAH F IGHTERS REPATRIATED FROM ISRAEL
- Date: 30th January 2004
- Summary: (W5) NAQOURA, SOUTHERN LEBANON (JANUARY 30, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV SECURITY PERSON STANDING NEXT TO LEBANESE FLAG 0.06 2. WIDE OF ISRAELI WARSHIP IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA 0.11 3. WIDE OF LEBANESE-ISRAELI BORDER 0.17 4. SLV HIZBOLLAH SOUTH LEBANON REPRESENTATIVE, NABIL QAOUQ, ARRIVING 0.20 5. WIDE OF INTERNATIONA
- Embargoed: 14th February 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NAQOURA, BEIRUT/LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA6YIGNPMZUKSQ9AI2BO4YA157Y
- Story Text: Israel delivers 60 bodies to Lebanon through the
International Committee for the Red Cross.
Lebanon received the bodies of 60 fighters on Friday
(January 30) as part of a prisoner swap deal between Israel
and Hizbollah guerrillas.
Seven International Committee of the Red Cross trucks
drove the bodies to a reception area, where Hizbollah
medics draped Lebanese flags over the pine coffins.
Several political and religious figures watched as the
caskets were placed into three trucks with transparent
sides, that transported them to Beirut. The convoy passed
through coastal towns and cities where hundreds of people
stood by on the sides of the road to hail the bodies.
Most of the fighters were killed during Israel's
22-year occupation of south Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
The ICRC received the bodies from Israel on Thursday
(January 29) as part of a German-mediated swap deal, more
than three years in the making, in which Israel freed 400
Palestinian prisoners and 36 others, mostly Lebanese.
In return, Hizbollah returned a captive Israeli
businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed
in a Hizbollah border raid in 2000.
The swap paves the way for a second stage of
negotiations over the fate of missing Israeli airman Ron
Arad, who bailed out over Lebanon in 1986, as well as four
Iranian diplomats kidnapped during Israel's 1982 invasion
of Lebanon.
Speaking at the event, the Deputy Secretary General of
Hizbollah, Naim Qassem, said, "As Hizbollah, we will
continue on our path and we consider that our way will
continue. We are not facing an accomplishment that
indicates the end of our mission, for it is a stage which
complements what we have started and we will continue, with
God's will, what we believe in to liberate all our soil and
all of the prisoners of war with no exceptions, and we will
prevent the enemy from committing criminal acts against us
for we will always be in a state of resistance, deterrence
and confrontation."
The bodies of the fighters will be taken to Beirut,
where their identities will be confirmed before they are
returned to villages and towns on Saturday (January 31) for
burial.
Families of the dead fighters lined the streets and
waved yellow Hizbollah flags, Lebanese flags and the
Lebanese Communist party flag. Many of the dead were
believed to belong to the Lebanese Communist party.
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