Israel Releases 31, Still Denies Hostage Link

Israel freed and sent home 31 Lebanese prisoners today, mostly Shia Muslims, while continuing to insist the move had no connection with demands of the Shia hijackers holding 40 Americans hostage in Beirut.

Israel now holds 735 Shias, Palestinians and other Arabs it brought to Atlit prison inside Israel last April from south Lebanon. Shia gunmen who seized a TWA airliner on June 14 are demanding the release of all the prisoners before the Americans go free.

The 31 prisoners--26 Shias and 5 Sunni Muslims--were transported to the Lebanese border in two trucks led by jeeps with mounted machine guns. They later knelt on a beach and praised Allah for their release, saying they had not heard of the TWA hijacking and hostage-taking.

Transferred to Red Cross

The prisoners, wearing red-striped track suits, were handed over to International Red Cross officials at 1 p.m. at Ras el Biyada, the northernmost checkpoint in Israel’s security zone in south Lebanon.

They were then transported in a hired yellow school bus flying a Red Cross banner nine miles north to the port of Tyre.

The Lebanese left the bus in Tyre shouting “Allah Akbar,” meaning “God is great,” and gleefully displaying freshly untied white plastic wrist ropes.

“I didn’t believe that I was going out,” said Karim Sakmani, 20.

He, like others questioned by reporters, said he did not know about the hijacking of the TWA plane now in Beirut.

No Newspapers

“We didn’t know about the hijacking or any other kidnaping,” he said. “We haven’t read newspapers since two weeks. . . . We didn’t know we were being released until 7 a.m. this morning. Yesterday we were in cells.”

The Israeli Defense Ministry said nine of the 31 were released after successfully appealing to a military committee and, as for the others, their interrogation had been completed.