Israel Frees 249 Shias, Takes Them Back to Lebanon Homes
Israel today freed 249 Shia Muslim guerrillas who had been brought here from a detention camp in southern Lebanon and allowed them to return to their homes.
Blindfolded and bound at the wrist and ankle, the detainees were bused into Israel’s self-declared security zone in south Lebanon before heading for their villages.
The 249 were among about 1,100 Shias transferred in April from the Israeli army’s Ansar detention camp in southern Lebanon to a jail in northern Israel.
Others have been freed since then, an army spokesman said. But about 630 more Shias are believed to remain in Israeli hands.
The transfer of the prisoners into Israel was criticized at the time by the International Committee of the Red Cross and by some nations as a violation of the Geneva Convention.
State radio said the decision to set the men free was partly based on the military’s hope that the guerrillas--jailed for alleged anti-Israeli attacks--would help the Shia Amal militia stop Palestinian gunmen from infiltrating south Lebanon.
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