100 Lebanese POWs Return Home as Heroes

Shouting “God is great,” 100 Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel returned home today in four white school buses to a heroes’ welcome.

The convoy, including six cars flying the Red Cross flag, left Israeli-controlled south Lebanon as people lined the road and showered the grinning detainees with rice--a traditional Lebanese welcome.

About 330 Lebanese prisoners remain at the Israeli prison at Atlit, out of the more than 1,200 once detained there. The release of more than 700 still at Atlit in mid-June was demanded by radical Shia Muslim gunmen who hijacked a TWA jet on a flight from Athens to Rome on June 14.

Israel has denied that it agreed to free the Lebanese to help win release of the Americans held captive for 17 days following the TWA hijacking. The 100 prisoners are the second group freed since the Shia Amal militia released the 39 American hostages seized from the hijacked airliner.

Israeli jet fighters crashed the sound barrier overhead as the Lebanese detainees, their wrists bound and clad in blue and white track suits, were transferred one by one to Red Cross officials in Lebanon.

“We were in a cell all the time,” Mohammed Najdi, 18, shouted from one bus to a reporter. “We were beaten all the time.”

Israel has denied that any of the prisoners were mistreated.

Shias throughout Lebanon called for the release of the remaining captives held at Atlit. In Tel Aviv, press reports said that the 330 or so detainees still at Atlit will be freed in three groups at two-week intervals.

“If there is one prisoner left we will do everything and the Israelis know it,” Gamal Saffieddin, an Amal officer, said. “We will not sleep and we are not afraid . . . we can do whatever is needed. We have proved that to the whole world,” he added, apparently referring to the TWA hijacking.