Lebanese Women Urge Release of Relatives From Israeli Prisons

Weeping Lebanese women, with photographs of their relatives pinned to their chests, held a protest Monday to plead for release of their family members from Israeli jails.

They said they want Western hostages in Lebanon freed only if their relatives are also released.

At least 50 women, many aged and shrouded in black chadors, marched to a south Beirut house belonging to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon to plead for their relatives, hundreds of whom are held in Khiam prison in Israel’s self-declared security zone in south Lebanon.

“We have seen and heard how the world was moved and the West enraged about a few Westerners who were kidnaped in Lebanon,” cried one woman marcher who refused to give her name. “But unfortunately, we have not seen or heard the least interest in our . . . sons held hostage in Zionist prisons.”

At least 15 Westerners, including six Americans, are held hostage by extremist groups in Lebanon.

Two U.S. hostages were released last month.

Also on Monday, senior Irish diplomat Antoine Mac Unfraidh arrived in Beirut to pursue efforts to secure the release of Brian Keenan, a Northern Irishman with dual Irish-British citizenship kidnaped in 1986.