Shafaq News- Beirut
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the return to Lebanon of five people freed from Israeli detention, with four arriving on Friday and the fifth a day earlier.
Lebanese media reported that the Israeli military handed the four to the ICRC, which transported them to Al-Mansouri, south of Tyre, before transferring them to the Lebanese Army. The fifth detainee returned through the Naqoura border crossing on Thursday under the same arrangement.
At the request of the relevant parties, we facilitated the transfer of five individuals released from Israeli detention to Lebanon. One individual was transferred on Thursday, and four others on Friday, with full respect for the safety and dignity of the individuals involved.… pic.twitter.com/FUNkRa5azO
— ICRC (@ICRC) September 4, 2026
President Joseph Aoun welcomed the move, thanking US President Donald Trump, international parties, and the ICRC for efforts that secured the return of the “first group” of Lebanese detainees held by Israel. He called for the remaining provisions of the trilateral framework to be implemented to restore full Lebanese sovereignty and bring home those still in custody.
The framework, agreed under US mediation on June 26, links a phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Lebanese Army deployment and the removal of non-state weapons and military infrastructure from transferred areas. It sets no fixed timetable for a complete Israeli pullout.
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Aoun also renewed his call for weapons to remain exclusively under the control of Lebanon’s legitimate security forces and for state authority to extend throughout the country.
أعرب رئيس الجمهورية العماد جوزاف عون عن شكره لكل المساعي والجهود التي بذلت، لا سيما من جانب الولايات المتحدة الاميركية بقيادة رئيسها دونالد ترامب، والجهات الدولية، وفي مقدمها الصليب الأحمر الدولي، والتي أدت اليوم الى تحرير الدفعة الأولى من المحتجزين اللبنانيين من قبل الحكومة…
— Lebanese Presidency (@LBpresidency) September 4, 2026
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office had announced that the five would be freed after an investigation found no links to any “terrorist organization” and no grounds for their continued detention. It also said Lebanese and Israeli authorities had taken steps to search for the remains of Jewish people in Lebanon.
The issue of detainees became a formal negotiating track during the latest round of US-sponsored talks in Rome in August. Lebanon and Israel exchanged preliminary lists of detainees and missing persons, with Beirut pressing for the release of an initial group of civilian detainees and Israel submitting names of Lebanese Jews recorded as missing or killed.