Lebanese prisoners in Israel

Lebanese prisoners in Israel have been a source of contention between Lebanon and Israel and were an issue in the 2006 Lebanon War. The number of such detainees is disputed. According to the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah, there are two Lebanese citizens in Israeli prisons, but Israel denies holding them. Hezbollah had demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners as condition for releasing Israeli reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured in the Hezbollah raid which started the 2006 Lebanon War. On July 16, 2008, the Israel Prison Service released five Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the remains of Goldwasser and Regev.

Following the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization, Israel initiated Operation Peace of the Galilee in June 1982, in order to terminate the military activity of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Syrian forces around the Israeli-Lebanese border. With U.S. assistance, Israel and Lebanon reached a withdrawal accord in May 1983, which was then recalled by Lebanon in March 1984, due to pressure from Syria. In 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops, leaving the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-supported Lebanese militia, to protect a security buffer zone in southern Lebanon, which Israel considered necessary to prevent attacks on its northern territory. Israel relinquished the security zone and withdrew behind the Blue Line in May 2000.

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