Israeli President for immediate withdrawal from Lebanon

Israeli President Ezer Weizman called on the Israeli government to withdraw immediately from south Lebanon.

In a speech quoted by the Israeli army radio on Thursday, the Israeli President said that staying in Lebanon is a diffcult matter. Weizman said Israel's occupation of south Lebanon brought only killed or wounded people to Israel.

Meanwhile, mothers of Lebanese detainees in Israeli jails on Thursday carried out a sit-in in front of the International Red Cross headquarters in Beirut, demanding the release of their sons. The follow-up committee in support of detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails said during the sit-in that the decision made by the Israeli Supreme Court that Israel can hold Lebanese citizens for years without trying them is a blatant violation of Geneva accord and to all international norms and charters which ban seizing hostages against releasing other hostages.

In a statement read by its secretary, the follow-up committee called upon the Lebanese Foreign Ministry to lodge an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council and UN institutions concerned to the holding of three Lebanese citizens as hostages in Israeli jails.