Families Rally for Abducted Relatives Amid Fears Over New Framework Agreement

Families of four Lebanese men who disappeared after returning to southern Lebanon gathered outside Beirut’s Grand Serail on Wednesday, June 24, carrying large photographs of their missing relatives and demanding immediate action from the Lebanese government.

Jawad Shadi Bazzi, Hadi Kamal al-Raqqa, Mohammed Ali Hassan, and Ali Musa Qashmar vanished 10 days earlier, after riding motorcycles to the South to check on their villages following a mutual cessation of attacks was accepted by Hezbollah and Israel. 

Their relatives told The Public Source they have been relentlessly petitioning Lebanese military intelligence, UNIFIL, and international humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee for the Red Cross, but have yet to receive any information about their whereabouts.

“I just want to know if he’s alive,” Jawad Bazzi’s father said. “He’s my only child. I don’t have anyone but him.”

Bazzi, a 19-year-old human rights student at the Islamic University of Lebanon with aspiration to become a lawyer, traveled south with a group of friends. He and Hadi al-Raqqa, also 19, rode on one motorcycle while the rest of the group traveled on six other bikes. At some point, Bazzi and al-Raqqa separated from their friends. According to Bazzi’s father, they were the only two who never returned.

His mother last spoke with him around 4 p.m. About 90 minutes later, Bazzi called a friend to say they had gotten slightly lost but were on their way back to Beirut. No one has heard from them since.

“You know the people of the South,” Hadi al-Raqqa’s uncle, Salah al-Raqqa, said, “the moment they hear that there’s a ceasefire, they immediately head to their villages. They were just being boys. They wanted to get there first and take photos to show everyone they had made it.”

Mohammed Hassan’s sister-in-law, Naamat Srour, said Hassan, originally from Aitaroun, traveled separately with a friend to the village of Beit Yahoun, north of Bint Jbeil. Like many others returning to the area, he sent photos and videos to his wife upon arriving. Srour believes he may have taken a wrong turn, ending up in the clutches of Israeli occupation forces.

“We're demanding that the Lebanese government understand that these people are not numbers,” she said, struggling to hold back tears. “They have families. They have children and people who love them. We demand that the government think of their families.”

Hassan, 34, is the father of a young son and daughter.

According to the Lebanese Association of Prisoners, at least 37 Lebanese nationals are being held by Israel. Some were abducted during Israel's 2024 war on Lebanon, while others were taken during the 15-month unilateral ceasefire that followed. During that period, Israel violated the agreement more than 15,000 times.

Ahmed Taleb, head of the Lebanese Association of Prisoners, previously told The Public Source that the Lebanese government has done little to advance the cases of those held by Israel. He argued that Lebanon's leadership should use international diplomatic channels to file formal complaints with the UN Security Council and increase pressure for their release.

The frustration was palpable outside the Grand Serail. After about 45 minutes of protest, tensions briefly escalated. 

“What are you doing standing there?” Hadi al-Raqqa's elderly aunt shouted. “Move! Into the streets!”

Some demonstrators stepped into the road, blocking traffic, while others remained on the sidewalk. Members of the Internal Security Forces urged them to clear the street and allow vehicles to pass through.

Mohammed Hassan’s 9-year-old daughter burst into tears, pleading with one officer: “May God be pleased with you, don’t make us move. This is my father, not a game. My father! A human being! Do something!”

Security forces eventually allowed demonstrators to block one side of the road while traffic continued on the other.

Two days later, on Friday, June 26, Lebanon, Israel, and the U.S. signed a framework agreement in Washington calling for “confidence-building measures that reflect positive intent.” Only clause 13 of the trilateral framework mentions the abductees: 

“In line with their shared goals to establish stable and peaceful relations, Israel and Lebanon commit to take good faith measures that demonstrate positive intent, including the cessation of all hostile or adverse actions in international political or legal fora, and pledge to work towards the search for and return of remains and the release of detainees.”

The National Human Rights Commission, including the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, rejected “any trade-off between living detainees and the remains of soldiers,” deeming the approach “incompatible with the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.” 

Call for Freedom, a campaign advocating for the release of Lebanese abductees held in Zionist prisons, condemned the agreement, calling it an “agreement of shame and subservience” that “mortgages the fate of Lebanese prisoners and abductees to the occupation.”

“Through this agreement — and specifically Article 13 — the Lebanese authorities ... have granted the Israeli occupation an open-ended license to stall and blackmail, effectively offering the freedom of our prisoners and abductees as a political gift to the criminal Benjamin Netanyahu,” the group wrote. “Our pledge and promise is that we will not abandon our prisoners… We will not forget. We will not give up. We will not be silent.”

Critics have compared the deal to the Oslo Accords, citing provisions for security coordination between the Lebanese army and Israeli forces.

Throughout the weekend, protesters burned tires on Beirut’s airport road, blocking traffic in protest of the agreement.

As of June 30, 2026, Jawad Bazzi, Hadi al-Raqqa, Mohammed Hassan, and Ali Qashmar remain missing. Their families say they do not even know if they are alive.