Hizbullah
followers wearing green uniforms placed yellow Hizbullah flags on the
coffins on which wreathes were laid by Sheikh Nabil Qaooq, the top
Hizbullah official in southern Lebanon, an AFP correspondent said.
"Today,
we regain some of the bodies of our dear martyrs and this is happening
as part of the activation of the negotiations and we hope that it will
continue and succeed," Qaooq told the crowd.
"
Hizbullah is determined to work on the return of the bodies of martyrs
and the detainees," he added.
ICRC
delegate in Lebanon, Antoine Bieler, told AFP "the operation went
on very well. We have returned the bodies to their families."
Bieler,
who was on site, said the ICRC was only informed of the operation
early Monday.
Women
wearing black chadors and children cried over the coffins as dozens of
men shouted: "O God, save us Nasrallah," referring to
Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
The
coffins were then transported on the shoulders of Hizbullah followers
across the main street of the border port of Naqura, home to the
headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping forces.
Hizbullah
television Al-Manar said the bodies of the slain combatants will be
taken to hospital, awaiting burial ceremonies on Tuesday.
Nasrallah
said in a statement earlier Monday that Israel made the decision
during German-mediated negotiations.
"The
possible repatriation of some bodies of martyrs comes within the
activation of ongoing negotiations through the German mediator,"
said Nasrallah, hoping they "will continue and achieve the
requested results."
He
had said Saturday that progress was being made on the issue of
prisoner exchanges with Israel through recently resumed mediation
efforts - the first since previous successful German mediations in
1996 and 1998.
An
Israeli security source said on condition of anonymity that "this
measure is designed to establish a climate of confidence in order to
make progress towards the eventual exchange of prisoners between
Israel and Hizbullah."
Israeli
officials confirmed Tuesday, August 21, that they had renewed contact
through Germany with the Shiite group on exchanging prisoners but one
official quoted in local reports said Hizbullah 's position was still
"unrealistic."
Israeli
Reserve General Ilan Biran, who is in charge of efforts to secure the
release of the four Israelis held by Hizbullah, visited Germany two
weeks ago for talks about the exchanges, Israeli television reported
Monday night.
Earlier
this month, a German intermediary visited Israel, as well as Lebanon,
where he met with Hizbullah leaders, according to the same report.
A
Hizbullah statement earlier Monday identified the two slain fighters
as "martyrs Ammar Hussein Hammud and Ghassan Zaayter."
A
Hizbullah official told AFP that Hammud was 20 years old when he was
killed on December 30, 1999, in a resistance car bomb explosion
against an Israeli patrol in the southern Lebanon zone occupied by the
Jewish state until May 2000.
The
attack had been the first by Hizbullah since 1996.
Zaayter,
born in 1972, was killed during a Hizbullah clash with Israeli troops
in the Iqlim al-Tuffah, a mountainous region in southern Lebanon and a
Hizbullah stronghold.
Hizbullah
is reportedly holding four Israelis, three of them soldiers, while
Israel is holding around 20 Lebanese, including two senior Islamic
figures.
Three
of the Israelis said to be held by Hizbullah were captured around the
disputed Shebaa Farms area close to the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian
border. But Israel suspects that the three may be dead.
