Israeli naval forces have captured a senior Hezbollah leader in northern Lebanon, an Israeli military official said Saturday.
Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the town of Batroun, in the north of the country.
“The agent was transferred to Israeli territory and is currently under investigation,” the military official said, without providing the name of the person detained.
Two Lebanese military officials confirmed to The Associated Press that a naval force landed in Batroun, about 30 kilometers north of Beirut, and kidnapped a Lebanese citizen. Neither gave the identity of the man or said whether he was suspected of having links to the Lebanese group Hezbollah. They did not confirm whether the gunmen belonged to Israeli forces.
Speaking to Lebanese Al-Jadeed television, Ali Hamie, Lebanon’s minister of public works and transport, refused to go into details or answer questions about whether it was an Israeli operation. .
Three Lebanese judicial officials told the AP that the incident occurred at dawn Friday, adding that the captain may have ties to Hezbollah. Officials said an investigation was underway into the man to determine whether he was linked to Hezbollah or worked for an Israeli intelligence agency and that an Israeli force had come to rescue him.
The military and judicial officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details about the incident or the ongoing investigation.
Hezbollah issued a statement calling what happened “Zionist aggression in the Batroun region.” The statement did not provide details or confirm whether any of the Hezbollah members were captured by Israel.
Israel has carried out commando operations deep inside Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah officials and Palestinians.
Residents of the building where the man was arrested said the armed group presented themselves as state security.
“We were terrified. They were breaking into the apartment next to ours,” Hussein Delbani told The Associated Press, near where the man was captured. “I thought a state agency was carrying out a security operation,” said Delbani, who was displaced from southern Lebanon a month ago when the war between Israel and Hezbollah broke out.
He said he saw people on the coast from his balcony and they ordered him to enter.
Hamie told Al-Jadeed that the man was a captain of civilian ships. He graduates in 2022 and joins the Batroun Institute of Maritime Sciences and Technologies at the end of September for additional training. Hamie said the man lived about 300 meters from the institute.
Hamie’s remarks came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be around 20 armed men taking a man away from outside a house, his face covered with his shirt.
Kandice Ardiel, spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, denied allegations by some journalists that peacekeepers helped the landing force in the operation. The U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force that monitors the coast.
“Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and endanger peacekeepers,” Ardiel said.
