18 May 2007

BEIRUT: Israeli forces on Thursday released a Lebanese man they had taken captive a day earlier on the outskirts of the border region of Shebaa. Hisham Dalleh, 35, was handed over to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which in turn handed him over to the Lebanese Army, the National News Agency (NNA) said.

According to the NNA report, an Israeli commando unit abducted Dalleh on the outskirts of Shebaa on Wednesday noon as he was working in a field near an Israeli radar base.

Baath Party MP Qassem Hashem issued a statement Thursday condemning the incident.

"We put this Israeli violation in the hands of the UN and international peacekeepers in order for them to see Israel's persistent violations of the Lebanese sovereignty," Hashem said in the statement.

"This is what makes us more attached to the resistance given that the Israeli enemy is still occupying the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shuba Hills," he added.

The disputed Shebaa Farms were seized by Israel during the 1967 war. The UN has said the area is Syrian, but Lebanon and Syria say it is Lebanese.

In another development, the French contingent of UNIFIL ended the first phase of mine-clearance operations in the South.

Over 4 million cluster bombs were strewn across the region by Israel during the summer 2006 war, the majority in the final days of the conflict.

The group vowed to continue its work because unexploded ordnance was still endangering civilians lives, it said.

The French contingent also received an all-terrain vehicle equipped with integrated information and communication technologies at the Port of Beirut on Wednesday.

The vehicle is to be used in a new educational mission due to start in South Lebanon in June to educate youth on the dangers of cluster bombs.

Manned by members of an international humanitarian organization called Nomadic Dream and Lebanese social workers, the 15-ton vehicle will be the centerpiece of educational tours to be conducted in partnership with the United Nations Children Fund. - The Daily Star, with agencies