In Lebanon, five former militants were welcomed with a massive rally in Beirut Wednesday following their release from Israeli prisons. The five were freed as part of a prisoner exchange that also saw Israel hand over the remains of around 200 militants in return for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. In a rare public appearance, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hailed the exchange as a major victory.

Hassan Nasrallah: “As we said in 2000, the age of defeat has passed, and the age of victory is upon us. This people, this nation, this country has today given a clear message to the world, to both friend and foe, that it cannot be defeated.”

More than 10,000 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners remain in Israeli jails. Israel attacked Lebanon in the summer of 2006 under the pretext of rescuing the soldiers following their capture in a Hezbollah operation. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the Independent of London correspondent Robert Fisk said, “The Israelis certainly lost that war. They did not get their prisoners back — not until now — and they’re getting them back dead… More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers, all died for absolutely nothing, and that’s what today’s prisoner exchanges prove.”