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Following the return of the detainees, deputy Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said Hezbollah is doing everything it can to find out what happened to Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, who disappeared after he was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Two weeks ago, a 72-hour ceasefire in Israel's security zone was brokered at the request of the ICRC to enable the retrieval of bodies of Hezbollah gunmen that had been left in the field. The ICRC recovered five bodies and returned them to the pro-Iranian guerrilla group on Dec. 22 in Tyre, Lebanon.

Some observers noted that some of the fruits of Israel's gesture might already have occurred in Iran, where it was announced last week that Jews held in jail there on charges of spying had been allowed visits from their families.