Hezbollah: Group may kidnap more Israelis ( 2004-01-30 09:19) (Agencies)
Hezbollah will kidnap more Israelis to secure the
release of Lebanese prisoners, if necessary, the militant movement's leader
warned Thursday.
Hezbollah Leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah
speaks during a mass rally to welcome 21 Lebanese prisoners freed by
Israel, in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday Jan. 29, 2004.
[AP]
Speaking at a mass rally to welcome 21
Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel hours earlier, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said
his guerrillas could capture more Israelis to bargain for the freedom of
Lebanese still held in Israeli prisons.
Turning to a huge poster of a guerrilla ambush in which three Israeli
soldiers were captured in October 2000, Nasrallah said: "This is a choice."
The soldiers' bodies were part of the major exchange of prisoners and remains
of fighters that was effected between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday through
German mediation.
Shortly before Nasrallah spoke, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon warned Hezbollah against kidnapping.
Speaking at a memorial service for the three dead soldiers in Israel, Sharon
said: "Israel will not allow any enemy or terror group to turn kidnapping and
ransom into a system. There are means we have not yet used. If, heaven forbid,
the circumstances are changed, we will not hesitate to use them."
He did not elaborate on the means.
Nasrallah said that Hezbollah guerrillas were heavy-handed when they took the
three Israeli soldiers dead.
Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a Hezbollah leader
and one of the most famous prisoners released, center, shakes hands with
his supporters during a mass rally to welcome 21 Lebanese prisoners freed
by Israel in Suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday Jan. 29, 2004.
[AP]
"I pledge to you that, next time, they will
bring them alive," he said.
The same month that the soldiers were ambushed, Hezbollah managed to kidnap
Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum as he visited an Arab state. As
Tannenbaum was the only Israeli known to be alive in Hezbollah's custody, he
became a major chip in the protracted negotiations for Thursday's exchange. He
returned to Israel on the same plane as the soldiers' coffins.
Nasrallah told the rally it was "foolish" for the Israeli government not to
have released Samir Kantar, the Lebanese citizen who has been held the longest
in Israel. "Because they didn't do that, I assure you that they will regret it
in the future."
Under the complex exchange, Israel freed about 400
Palestinians to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, nearly 30 Lebanese and other Arabs
who were flown to Beirut via Germany, and handed over the remains of 60
guerrillas to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the
Israeli-Lebanese border.
In return, Hezbollah handed over Tannenbaum and the three soldiers' bodies.
The two sides have undertaken to engage in new negotiations for further
releases once Hezbollah has produced hard evidence about the fate of Ron Arad,
an Israeli airman who was captured when his plane was shot down over Lebanon in
1986 but disappeared two years later. In exchange for evidence on Arad, Israel
is expected to release Kantar and possibly more Palestinians.
Nasrallah said in his speech that Hezbollah would exert every effort to
secure information about Arad.
