BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 22 — Hassan Nasrallah, the name of the leader of Hezbollah, is a pretty common name in Lebanon, it turns out.

There are 32 Hassan Nasrallahs in the telephone book. But that is the tip of the iceberg because the book lists only land lines, which hardly anyone in this cellphone-crazed country uses anymore.

The other day a journalist doing street interviews asked for a man’s name and was told “Hassan Nasrallah.” The man somewhat sheepishly explained that it was in fact his name and that there were lots of people named Hassan Nasrallah.

So perhaps it is not surprising that even Israel’s elite commando unit became confused. It staged a daring raid on the Hezbollah stronghold in Baalbek in the early morning darkness of Aug. 2, killing at least 10 people and carrying off five suspected guerrillas captured in a house.

But the house belonged to Hassan Nasrallah the plasterer rather than Hassan Nasrallah the Hezbollah leader.

At any rate, Israel released all five captives overnight and on Tuesday evening they were being debriefed at the Lebanese Army headquarters in Yarze, in the hills overlooking Beirut.

“We captured five people we thought were involved with Hezbollah,” explained an Israeli official who asked not to be identified. “Under questioning it turned out we were wrong. So we turned them over to the U.N.”

The impetus may have been a petition for their release submitted Monday to Israel’s High Court of Justice by Leah Tsemel, a lawyer who has often represented Palestinians. The court ordered the defense minister to respond within 24 hours and scheduled a hearing in the coming week.

Shortly thereafter, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported, the five were released and turned over to United Nations peacekeeping troops at the border.

The petition, quoting the prisoners, said that when the Israeli airstrikes began that night, families gathered for shelter in the house in Baalbek, and then troops “arrived on the scene and rounded up all the men in the house, including the homeowner’s son, who is 13.”

“Everyone was handcuffed and had their eyes covered,” the statement continued. “They dragged us a very great distance until we reached the helicopter that was waiting for us. They put us in the helicopter, and from there they transported us to Israel. When we arrived in Israel we were interrogated for 14 hours in an unknown installation by people in mufti who asked us whether we were military activists or involved in any political activity.

“We responded in the absolute negative.”