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Beirut welcomes freed prisoners | Beirut welcomes freed prisoners |
(about 1 hour later) | |
The leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has personally welcomed home five militants freed by Israel. | |
The Israelis handed over the prisoners, along with the remains of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, in exchange for the remains of two of soldiers. | |
The soldiers' capture in 2006 sparked a brief war between Israel and Hezbollah. | |
Greeting the returnees at a huge rally in Beirut, Sheikh Nasrallah said the "age of defeats" was over. | |
Hezbollah displayed coffins containing the bodies of the Israeli soldiers | Hezbollah displayed coffins containing the bodies of the Israeli soldiers |
Tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters, some travelling by car or scooter, converged on the south of the Lebanese capital for a rally to celebrate the prisoners' release and listen to Sheikh Nasrallah speak. | |
"The true, original and permanent identity of our region's peoples and our nation is that of resistance," he told them. | |
"It is an identity of the will and culture of resistance and of the rejection of humiliation and occupation, regardless of who the occupiers, the tyrants and the powerful are." | |
Fireworks lit up the night sky and the crowds waved yellow Hezbollah flags. Some threw rice as they mobbed the cars carrying the ex-prisoners to the rally in the city's southern suburbs, Hezbollah's stronghold. | |
Earlier, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and other politicians from across the country's religious and political divide greeted the five men at Beirut airport. | |
Maximum publicity | |
The ex-prisoners crossed into Lebanon in an exchange mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross. | |
PRISONER EXCHANGE From Hezbollah: Bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and remains of other Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon in 2006From Israel: Five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Qantar, and remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters Outlook bleak despite exchangeGermany's success as mediatorIn pictures: Prisoner exchange | PRISONER EXCHANGE From Hezbollah: Bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and remains of other Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon in 2006From Israel: Five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Qantar, and remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters Outlook bleak despite exchangeGermany's success as mediatorIn pictures: Prisoner exchange |
Changing into combat fatigues, they stopped briefly in the coastal town of Naqoura before being flown to Beirut. | |
Sheikh Nasrallah's message, delivered in his first public appearance since September 2006, was that Lebanon could not be defeated. | |
He expressly linked the prisoners' release to "victory" over Israel in July 2006. | |
The best-known and most controversial of the released prisoners, gunman Samir Qantar - who was jailed in 1979 for killing a four-year-old Israeli girl and two other people - also spoke. | |
He hailed Lebanon's "great Islamic resistance". | He hailed Lebanon's "great Islamic resistance". |
In his speech of welcome, President Suleiman hailed the ex-prisoners as "resistance fighters coming back from the prisons of the occupier". | |
Hezbollah supporters converged on the south of the city | Hezbollah supporters converged on the south of the city |
It is clear Hezbollah means to extract the maximum possible publicity from this event, the BBC's Crispin Thorold reports from the rally. | |
The release, which has caused so much pain in Israel, is being treated as a triumph in Lebanon, by supporters and opponents of Hezbollah alike, he adds. | |
Under the exchange - the fruit of two years of delicate German mediation - Hezbollah is also to return the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon in 2006. | Under the exchange - the fruit of two years of delicate German mediation - Hezbollah is also to return the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon in 2006. |
The agreement has caused controversy in Israel, with some ministers opposed to exchanging live Hezbollah prisoners for dead bodies. | The agreement has caused controversy in Israel, with some ministers opposed to exchanging live Hezbollah prisoners for dead bodies. |
Qantar controversy | Qantar controversy |
Qantar had been in jail since 1979 for the deadly guerrilla raid in which he killed the child, her father and a policeman. | |
HAVE YOUR SAYWhat kind of pathology can cause a society to celebrate such evil?Avi, LondonSend us your comments | HAVE YOUR SAYWhat kind of pathology can cause a society to celebrate such evil?Avi, LondonSend us your comments |
His imprisonment was arguably a catalyst for the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, our correspondent says, as Lebanese militants captured the two Israeli soldiers to demand his release. | His imprisonment was arguably a catalyst for the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, our correspondent says, as Lebanese militants captured the two Israeli soldiers to demand his release. |
The Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were seized in 2006 but until now there had been no confirmation of their deaths until Wednesday. | |
They are due to be given military funerals on Thursday. | |
Correspondents say the mood in Israel over the exchange of prisoners for the remains of dead soldiers is grim. | |
"Woe betide the people who celebrate the release of a beastly man who bludgeoned the skull of a four-year-old toddler," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement before he was due to meet the soldiers' families. | |
Hezbollah withheld any information about when the soldiers had died and never released pictures of them in captivity, leaving it unclear whether they had been killed in the original raid. | Hezbollah withheld any information about when the soldiers had died and never released pictures of them in captivity, leaving it unclear whether they had been killed in the original raid. |
However, one Hezbollah official quoted by Lebanese TV on Wednesday confirmed that both soldiers had been seriously injured during the raid, and later died of their injuries. | However, one Hezbollah official quoted by Lebanese TV on Wednesday confirmed that both soldiers had been seriously injured during the raid, and later died of their injuries. |