BEIRUT — Since 2024, Israeli forces have abducted dozens of Lebanese nationals, including during commando raids.
Lebanon’s Nawaf Salam’s cabinet remains shockingly inactive, while families remain painfully ignorant about the health, whereabouts, and fate of their loved ones.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is systematically blocked from accessing detainees. Letters, messages and reassurances from mothers, wives, children and relatives cannot be delivered because this is a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
Those abducted include civilians and prisoners of war alike. All persons have the right to protection, dignity and immediate release once hostilities have ceased.
Lebanon’s list of missing persons is a chilling nightmare. Ali Nasser Younes and his uncle Fuad Habib Kataya were abducted while on their way to a workshop in Wadi al-Fujair. Hussein Amin Karki was shot in the back as his mother was brutally murdered right in front of his eyes. Hassan Ahmad Hammoud was photographed at dawn after his home in Taybeh was set on fire. They include students, fishermen, municipal workers and emergency workers, including Hassan Youssef Kaskoush and Alaa Fares.
The conditions these Lebanese endure are abhorrent. Neutral observers or the ICRC are prohibited. Lawyers and relatives are completely isolated.
Survivors describe unrelenting physical and mental suffering. These include brutal beatings, humiliating strip searches, starvation, denial of water and medical care, isolation, intimidation, and collective punishment directed at prisoners’ families.
International law is painfully clear and yet shamelessly ignored. for example:
– The Third Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols criminalize torture, guarantee medical care, and require humane treatment on par with prisoners of war. Prisoners of war must communicate with their families through the ICRC, practice their religion, and be released as soon as hostilities end.
– The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits kidnapping, hostage and arbitrary detention of civilians.
– Article 8 of the Rome Statute classifies such acts as war crimes, and Article 96 of the ICRC Regulations prohibits hostage-taking in all conflicts.
There are no security agencies to track detainees, no ministries to document detainees’ names, and no crisis management unit to advocate for their release. The paralysis of Lebanon gives Israel free rein to abduct, abuse, and isolate its people.
Nawaf Salam’s cabinet has always been keen to appear “responsible”, preferring accusations and empty statements to decisive action. This is not an oversight, but a deliberate neglect disguised as governance.
With each passing hour of inaction, national humiliation deepens and Lebanese children are certain to remain pawns on a cruel geopolitical chessboard.
History is unforgiving. No Lebanese prisoners were ever released as a result of a UN resolution or diplomatic appeal. Liberation could only be achieved through armed resistance, as the enemy succumbed only to strength.
Salaam’s daily idleness is a morally grotesque betrayal. Every kidnapped Lebanese citizen is a living whistleblower against the state’s chronic incompetence.
Families scavenge for snippets of information and social media from released Palestinian prisoners. Mothers in Ofer, Ramleh and Nafa who find out their sons are alive have no government to turn to. All they are given are empty promises.
Salam’s cabinet faces a choice: take back responsibility or remain a passive bystander to the suffering of its people.
Until states assert themselves legally, diplomatically, and through relentless media pressure, kidnapped people will remain hostages both to their enemies and to the governments that shamefully abandoned them at their most vulnerable.
There are many remedies available, but they continue to be brazenly ignored. formally request access to the ICRC; Carefully record each abduction. Submit complaints to the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council. Launch a global awareness campaign. File a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Convene an emergency parliamentary and ministerial meeting to develop a definitive national strategy.
The enemy only respects raw, uncompromising power. Not petitions, resolutions, or political correctness. The release of Lebanese prisoners will require bold courage, unflinching clarity, and an uncompromising assertion of the national will. Anything less is complete betrayal!