Mohammed Zaatari and Samer Wehbi
Daily Star correspondents

Israel on Monday released a Hizbullah fighter whom it had been holding for 14 years and six months.
Mohammad Abbas Barzawi, captured in April 1987 during a Hizbullah assault on the Toumat Niha hilltop, held up his fingers in the “V for victory” sign as he crossed into Lebanese territory.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that there are two dozen Lebanese still detained in Israel, most of them resistance fighters.
Barzawi, 37, had been handed over to the ICRC in Israel, who in turn brought him across the border, where he was delivered to Hizbullah, which had more than 100 members on the scene to welcome the resistance fighter.
The Hizbullah members were waving their party’s banner along with Lebanese and Palestinian flags.
The release took place at 5pm, when two ICRC vehicles crossed into Lebanese territory. The ICRC’s chief delegate, Henry Fournier, and several security officials were on hand for the handover.
The former detainee disembarked from the ICRC vehicle he was riding in wearing handcuffs and leg irons.
He hugged Qaouk, who in turn presented him with a string of roses and a keffiyeh.
He also presented Barzawi with a Hizbullah flag, which the visibly exhausted former detainee began to wave, wearing a smile.
Barzawi’s next stop was in Nabatieh, where he was received by a Hizbullah unit which saluted him, while women threw rose petals at him.
In an address at the scene, Qaouk declared that Barzawi’s release had been “the fruit of Hizbullah’s efforts to free all detainees.”
The issue of prisoners and detainees has been and will continue to be at Hizbullah’s top priorities, he added.
Barzawi said that he was “glad” to finally be a free man, after years of what he described as “torture and imprisonment.”
Members of Barzawi’s family, residing in Baalbek, indicated that they had received information from a Hizbullah official two days earlier announcing his release.
Barzawi’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said she received a telephone call from her son a week ago during which he reassured her about his health and insinuated that he might be soon released.
Upon the news of Barzawi’s release, the municipality of Baalbek hurried to pave the road leading to his house in preparation for the welcoming of visitors.
Barzawi’s mother awaited her son’s arrival at her home holding his picture, while his sister showed several letters
he had sent through mediators from the International Committee for the Red Cross. ­ Additional reporting by Morshed Dandash

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