Three farmers detained by Israel in Lebanon, village leader says

Three Lebanese farmers have been detained by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to the leader of their village.

Issa Abedelaal told the BBC that Israeli forces called the three farmers on their mobile phones and instructed them to report to a location, where they were detained and taken away.

It came after Israeli forces had entered the village of Halta in Hasbaya province, which lies within a roughly 600 sq km area that Israel continues to occupy.

The detentions were reported to the US-led International Monitoring and Implementation Mechanism, which oversees security coordination between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli military has not replied to a request for comment.

Hours later, Israel released another Lebanese civilian held in the country, in what is believed to be the first known civilian release since US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon began in April.

Malek Ghazi was handed over to the Lebanese army by the International Committee of the Red Cross, while Israel says four more Lebanese civilians will be released on Friday.

More than 30 Lebanese are still believed to be in Israeli custody, as negotiations between the two countries remain stalled over a framework involving Hezbollah's disarmament, an Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south.

Ghazi was handed over at the Naqoura crossing before being taken to an army intelligence facility in Tyre for a medical examination.

His family says he disappeared last October after leaving home to exercise.

Israel's prime minister's office said four other civilians due to be released on Friday had been questioned and found to have no links to armed groups.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed Ghazi's release and thanked the US for its role in securing it.

He said the government would continue working for the release of all Lebanese detainees, information about those still missing, and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

The detainee issue is part of wider US-mediated negotiations, alongside separate efforts to recover the remains of Lebanese Jewish community leaders abducted and killed during the country's civil war.

The negotiations also cover a framework agreed in mid-June, under which Hezbollah is expected to disarm, the Lebanese army to deploy in the south and Israeli forces to withdraw gradually, beginning with designated "pilot zones".

But the process has made little headway, with Israel questioning the role of the Lebanese army and disagreements over how compliance would be verified.

Hezbollah rejects the talks and the pilot-zone concept outright.

The two sides have yet to set a date for the eighth round of talks.

Israel has continued attacks on southern Lebanon, and officials say the Israeli military has been expanding its positions.

Lebanese authorities said 11 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the region in August. Israel's Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that it had killed a Hezbollah commander in the strike, following an attack against Israeli soldiers.