Releasing all of the hostages is something, but releasing one of them is something else. It appears as if the act of liberating the Lebanese pilgrim was a message from his abductors. He wasn’t freed because someone asked for, but because deep down there was a need of sending him home.

• The Syrian rebels have lots of people in the custody of the Mekdads, and releasing him was enough to free a number of them, calm the Shia community down, and more importantly, cover their failure. What happened at Azaz a couple of weeks earlier is getting clearer by the day: The FSA gets bombed by the Syrian army at the Syrian borders. Some FSA members probably think that if they accuse the Syrian regime of bombing the regions where the Lebanese were detained, the Lebanese Shias will hate the regime for killing its pilgrims and turn against Hezbollah. As a matter of fact, within hours, the complete opposite happened resulting in the FSA’s attempt of cover up the story by denying then confirming their death multiple times (Including the abductor Abu Ibrahim’s video on YouTube which turned out to be fake?). Confusion finally made everyone calm down, and releasing one of the hostages was the only way to perfectly convince everyone that the remaining ten are alive.
• “We are not captives, we are guests”, “We call on the Lebanese people and the dormant Arab people, to stand up and support this oppressed people of Syria”. These quotes are not out of nowhere. Regardless of the fact that the FSA asked him to speak or not, the liberated Hussein Ali Omar had to make such a statement so his former co-detained don’t get hurt. In both cases, it’s an efficient way of bridging back with the Lebanese abductors.
• Only hours after the Lebanese was freed, another Iranian was declared taken. A  clear message to the Iranians: If the Lebanese was safe and then released, so can be yours.
• The Turks have two kidnapped in Lebanon. “Turkish authorities are smoothly exerting efforts to free the remaining kidnapped Lebanese” said the Lebanese interior minister. Translation: Don’t hurt the detained Turks, we shall free the Lebanese. A nice way of buying time.

Notice the Turkish Tie.