Hizbullah Chief Welcomes Freed Prisoners
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a rare public appearance, welcomed five Lebanese freed from captivity in Israel on Wednesday, July 16, 2008, after the resistance group returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah, who moves in secret for security reasons, emerged briefly to embrace the ex-prisoners at a rally in Beirut and declared the exchange a victory for Hizbullah and Lebanon. A grim mood prevailed in Israel, where the prisoner swap was widely seen as a painful necessity.