Israel admits 'no justification' for Lebanese detention

Release contradicts 'Hezbollah operative' claims

Malik Kamal Razi, a 20-year-old from eastern Lebanon's Rashaya district, was handed over to the Lebanese army through the International Committee of the Red Cross at the Naqoura crossing on Thursday after spending nearly 11 months in Israeli custody without charges. The release marked the first such transfer since US-brokered negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv began in April, coming after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office admitted an investigation found the detainees "do not belong to any terrorist organization, have not engaged in terrorism, and there is no justification for their continued detention."

The statement contradicts earlier descriptions by Israeli official media, which had labeled Razi a "Hezbollah operative" without providing evidence. Netanyahu's office linked the release to field searches for the remains of members of the Jewish community kidnapped and killed in Lebanon in the mid-1980s.

Razi disappeared on Oct. 12, 2025, while exercising on his motorcycle near his hometown of Ain Ata; his motorcycle was later found before it emerged that Israel was holding him. Lebanese lawyer and lawmaker Melhem Khalaf told Anadolu that releasing Razi and other Lebanese nationals abducted by Israel over the past two years does not negate their rights to seek investigations, accountability and reparations for any violations they suffered during their detention.

Fishermen, shepherds among civilian detainees

Razi's case forms part of a broader pattern documented by Lebanon's national human rights commission, which recorded the arrests of civilians engaged in everyday activities. These include two nurses detained in Aita al-Shaab in November 2024, two workers traveling to civilian jobs in December 2024, and fishermen seized off Naqoura in February and June 2025. The commission noted that a shepherd was also detained while tending his flock in the Mount Hermon area on June 7, 2025, stating that these incidents indicated "arbitrary detention" violating Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and potentially amounting to "enforced disappearance" under Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The independent research group Legal Agenda documented 22 Lebanese people captured alive alongside 42 whose fate remained unknown as of February 2026, later raising the number of confirmed alive captives to at least 30 following renewed Israeli operations in May. Released prisoner and academic Nabih Awada told Anadolu that 36 Lebanese prisoners remain alive in Israeli prisons according to the Prisoners' Representatives Committee and Lebanese authorities, though Israel has declared holding only 33. He noted that between seven and 10 detainees are classified as Hezbollah's "Radwan Force" members, meaning Israel does not consider the remaining detainees to be combatants. A Lebanese official source said Israel was expected to hand over four more detainees, including two Syrians, to the Red Cross at Naqoura on Friday morning.

Diplomatic pressure and ongoing arrests

Lebanon considers civilians detained inside its territory to be abductees rather than prisoners of war, particularly as Beirut holds no Israelis for exchange. Khalaf told Anadolu that civilian detainees in international armed conflicts are covered by the Fourth Geneva Convention, while those meeting prisoner-of-war criteria fall under the Third Convention, with both guaranteeing humane treatment, protection from torture and fair-trial safeguards. The pattern of prolonged detention without charges extends to Gaza, where Israel applies the 2002 "Unlawful Combatants Law" to hold individuals for renewable periods without indictments—a mechanism initially used against two Lebanese citizens before wider application to Gazans, according to Amnesty International.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has contacted Washington to pressure Israel to uphold the ceasefire and withdraw from Lebanese territory, according to official sources. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam pledged following Razi's release to continue pursuing the issue until all detainees are freed, even as Israeli forces abducted three people from the southern town of Halta on Thursday. Since March 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 4,350 people and injured 12,307 others while displacing more than 1 million people, according to Lebanese authorities.