Iloubnan - Lebanese flotilla activists repatriated, June 3, 2010

BEIRUT - Four Lebanese activists detained during an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla this week were freed on Wednesday and given a hero's welcome at the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Dozens cheered, waving the Lebanese, Palestinian and Turkish flag and throwing rice and flowers, as Abbas Hussein Hassan Nasser, Hussein Mohammed Shukur, Andre Abi Khalil and Hani Hussein Sleiman crossed the border at Naqura.

An AFP correspondent said representatives of the Lebanese president, prime minister and parliament speaker as well as lawmakers of Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah were also present.

Israel had handed over the four men who were visibly tired to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Sleiman, who suffered a gunshot wound to a foot, arrived in an ambulance.

"There is much talk about Israeli brutality but when you see it close up it's a different story," Nasser told the press, adding that he saw "hundreds of soldiers armed to the teeth".

"I told the Israelis that they killed my children," said Shukur whose wife and children died in an Israeli raid during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Brigitte Meng Comninos, the ICRC communications officer in Lebanon, earlier told AFP a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross had officially been requested to repatriate the four Lebanese at the Naqura border crossing.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was to hold a demonstration later Wednesday near the border with the Jewish state to protest Monday's raid.

At least nine people were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the aid flotilla attempting to approach the Gaza coast shortly before dawn.

Israel detained hundreds of activists who were attempting to break the blockade and has vowed to stop other Gaza-bound ships despite a global outcry over its raid.