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| 01/06/2008 Nassim Nisr has arrived home.
The Lebanese detainee in Israeli jails since 6 years was released Sunday morning from the Nitzan (Ramle) Prison in Ramallah, in the framework of a swap deal between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah senior official, Hajj Wafiq Safa, announced that Hezbollah has handed the ICRC some body parts of Israeli soldiers who were killed in Lebanon during the 2006 aggression on Lebanon. Safa refused to give further details "for the safety and secrecy of the ongoing swap negotiation."
Meanwhile, the ICRC representative who escorted Nisr into Lebanon thanked Hezbollah "for the gesture the party made today" adding that it was a very important move.
Escorted by ICRC personnel, Nisr arrived in south Lebanon through the Naqura crossing where he received a warm welcome from thousands of people who gathered under the burning sun of the coastal town of Naqura. Hezbollah figures also attended the welcome ceremony. Speaking to Al-Manar upon arrival, Nisr thanked everyone who contributed to his release.
On Monday, Lebanese officials reported progress in the UN-mediated negotiations, saying that the German mediator Gerhard Konrad had met with members of Hezbollah and that a breakthrough was near. However Israeli security authorities and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have said the handover is not connected to any future prisoner exchange, rather, was approved after it became evident that the decision to continue to hold Nisr indefinitely as a bargaining chip would not stand up to Supreme Court scrutiny.
Nisr was in a very good shape and very happy as he raised the flag of Hezbollah while saluting the crowds and the media people. His meeting with his mother, family members and Bassam Kintar, the brother of detainee Samir Kintar, was very sentimental.
Hezbollah official in south Lebanon Sheikh Nabil Kawouk pledged that Lebanon will remain the Lebanon of resistance and victory "until the ultimate victory."
"The sincere promise of his eminence Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has been fulfilled. Despite all the problems in Lebanon, Hezbollah has never abandoned the cause of the detainees because it is in fact the biggest deposit…There is no complete freedom, no complete sovereignty and no complete dignity as long as there is one detainee in Israeli jails. The detainees are the precise criterion that determine the Arab nature of this Umma. The way to liberate them is the way of the resistance. As we speak today, we look forward to the very near future when our remaining detainees return home. It will be a great victory for Lebanon and the Arab nation when Samir Kintar and his companions return. Hezbollah and the resistance community announce our love and consolidation with our Palestinian brothers in Israeli jails. On this day also, we remember his eminence Imam Mussa Sadr," said Sheikh Kawouk.
Nassim Nisr took the stand after Hezbollah's official in the south and greeted all of Lebanon and in particular Sayyed Nasrallah and Hezbollah. "It will not be long before the Lebanese detainees in Israeli jails return home," Nisr said.
Nisr is a former Jew who converted to Islam moved to Israel from Lebanon and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2002 after he was convicted of providing information to Hezbollah.
His prison term has recently ended, but the Israeli security establishment considered holding onto him as a bargaining chip in the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah – and he has been held under administrative arrest at the Nitzan Detention Center.
Earlier this week, Nisr's attorney Smadar Ben-Natan said that “the timing of the release is not coincidental. Israel could have transferred him to Lebanon a few weeks ago, but the procedure has been delayed in order to be perceived as an Israeli gesture.”
Earlier this week, Nisr's family in Lebanon said he had called
them to inform them of his imminent release.
Nisr left Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982 and joined
his mother's family in Israel, where he settled near Tel Aviv.
Nisr's brother Mohammed said Nessim had told him in a phone call
a month ago that "his jailers had placed him in solitary confinement
in a bid to persuade him to abandon his plans to return to Lebanon
with his two daughters, who are Israeli citizens." | 
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