An incomplete list obtained by Ha'aretz from the Israeli Prison Service in March 1997 suggested that Israel held 52 Lebanese, mostly captured in Lebanese territory by the Israeli Defence Force or its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army (disbanded since Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000). Particular concern was held for 21 Lebanese detainees, who broadly fitted two categories:

- 11 men were tried for offences committed in 1986/87 such as military training, attacks on Israel, weapons possession and membership of banned organisations (eg Hezbollah). They were convicted by a military court and served their terms, yet were still held long after the fact under administrative detention in a Ramaleh prison. The reason for this has never been made public.

- 10 others were captured around the same time, and held in administrative detention without charge or trial. They were forcibly taken to Israel, where they were held in a Ramaleh prison. Their presence there, initially denied, was eventually admitted. No public hearing ever took place, though this is understood to be the norm.

A damning report produced by Humans Rights Watch in 1997, entitled Without Status or Protection: Lebanese Detainees in Israel, asserts that all 21 prisoners were held without due process or humane treatment, in breach of the Geneva Convention (1949), and that no status under the laws of war was accorded them. Five were released in December 1999, and another, reported to be mentally ill, was released in April 2000.

The report expressed concern that two of the men were thought to be held as hostages, a further grave breach of the Geneva Convention, as it was understood that Israel had conditioned their release on information leading to the return of Israeli POWs and MIAs.

In April 2000, the Israeli High Court ruled their detention to be illegal under domestic Israeli law, which was then rapidly changed in June of the same year to sidestep the difficulty. The two were released in January 2004 as part of a wider prisoner swap.

Further concern was held over Khiam Prison in formerly occupied South Lebanon, where countless Lebanese were subjected to unlawful detention and severe abuse since it opened in 1985, according to Amnesty International, which monitored the prison since it opened.

An open letter, written by an Amnesty delegation who visited it shortly after its closure in May 2000, contended that even though it was run by the SLA, Israel, as the occupying power, was legally held to be responsible for it.

Many prisoners released from this facility required physical and psychological rehabilitation. On 23 May 2000, the prison was closed upon the collapse of the SLA, and the remaining 144 prisoners were released and the jailers fled.

As recently as 27 June 2006, laws concerning the incommunicado detention of prisoners have been changed to extend to 96 hours the period before which a prisoner must come before a judge, and 21 days remains the period before which a prisoner suspected of 'security' offences must have access to a lawyer.

Lebanese prisoner profiles:

A major prisoner swap took place on 29 January 2004 in a German-brokered deal in which 23 Lebanese nationals were released to Hezbollah in exchange for a reservist colonel and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. Also included in the deal were Arabs of other nationalities and 400 Palestinians.

Under the deal, Israel provided Lebanon with information on 24 missing Lebanese, and turned over the bodies of 59 Lebanese killed by Israeli forces. Some uncertainty exists as to who exactly remains imprisoned in Israel. Israel admits to holding two Lebanese, but Lebanese sources say three or four.

Samir Kantar, a Druze from the Aleih District of Lebanon, has been in prison since 1979, when he was captured as a lieutenant in the Palestine Liberation Organisation on a mission aimed at capturing Israeli soldiers. Several people died in the operation, which gained notoriety in Israel. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah frequently called for his release in prisoner exchanges, but was always turned down by Israeli authorities.

Kantar was finally released on 17 July 2008 as part of a prisoner swap in which he and four Hezbollah fighters captured during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon were exchanged for the remains of two Israeli soldiers captured in a cross border raid at the start of the 2006 war. In addition, the remains of a further 200 Hezbollah fighters were returned. A file containing information on pilot Ron Arad, downed in 1986, was handed over to the Israeli authorities.

Nassim Nasir, from Bazourieh, took Israeli citizenship a year after entering Israel due to his mother being Jewish. He was arrested in 2002 and imprisoned, accused of spying for Hezbollah. He was released in early May 2008, had his Israeli citizenship revoked, and was driven to the Lebanese border one month later. As part of an exchange, Hezbollah returned the remains of five Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Yehia Skeif, a Christian from north Lebanon, has been held since 1978 for participating in a military operation against the Israeli Army. Reportedly in poor health by those prisoners that saw him while serving their sentences, his detention is not acknowledged by the Israeli authorities, but asserted by the Lebanese.

Israel holds a fourth man, a fisherman called Ali Faratan, according to Hezbollah MP Nawar al-Sahili, though this is unconfirmed.

Following the prisoner exchange of July 2008, it is now considered that there are no further Lebanese prisoners being held in Israeli jails, apart from a low number being held for conventional criminal offences.

Sources:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE180082000?open&of=ENG-LBN

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-01/29/article06.shtml

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/01/29/prisoner.exchange/

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE180082000?open&of=ENG-ISR

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/israelwo/

http://wwwhrw.org/backgrounder/mena/isr0622-back.htm

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2000/04/18/isrlpa486.htm

http://hrw.org/english/docs/1999/10/28/isrlpa1667.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5211930.stm

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200607/INT20060718b.html