Hebrew media claims arrest of Hezbollah official in operation deep inside Lebanon

The Hebrew newspaper "Maariv" claimed, on Saturday, that an Israeli naval force "commandos" carried out a raid from the sea towards the Lebanese interior in the north, and kidnapped a senior official in "Hezbollah".

This came according to what the Hebrew newspaper reported from "foreign sources", which it did not name, while the official Lebanese News Agency said that the security services are investigating an incident that occurred in the Batroun area at dawn yesterday (Thursday), which resulted in the kidnapping of a Lebanese citizen.

According to Maariv, the sources said that "the Israeli naval commando unit Shayetet 13 reached a depth of 200 kilometers inside Lebanon under the protection of Israeli ships and missiles."

She claimed that the Israeli special force "carried out a raid in the area and arrested a senior official in Hezbollah's naval forces, and left the coast using fast ships."

She pointed out that "the raid, carried out by a force of 25 Israeli soldiers in the early hours of Friday morning, targeted senior Hezbollah officer and Lebanese naval officer Imad Fadel Amhaz."

While Maariv identified the kidnapped person, the official agency did not mention any details about that, while it quoted the residents of the area as saying that “an unidentified military force carried out a naval landing operation on the Batroun beach, and moved with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, where it kidnapped a Lebanese man who was there, took him to the beach, and left by speedboats to the open sea.”

Commenting on the incident, Lebanese Minister of Public Works Ali Hamieh said in a statement via the "X" platform that the security services are investigating what was circulated about a sea landing operation carried out by gunmen (an Israeli commando unit) on the coast of Batroun in the north.

Lebanese Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh told Al Jazeera that the person kidnapped in Batroun is a sea captain who is pursuing his studies at the Institute of Marine Sciences, and what is mentioned in the circulated video is true, and the security services are conducting the necessary investigations.

Lebanese media: An Israeli commando force that carried out a naval landing on the beach of the city of Batroun in northern Lebanon, consisting of 30 soldiers, kidnapped a senior Hezbollah leader named Imad Fadel Amhaz and four members of the party #Bekaa #Batroun #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/gp2nMdR3Cw

- Youba Tv🇲🇦🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@YoubaTv) November 2, 2024

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on what was reported by the Hebrew newspaper until 13:40 (GMT).

After clashes with factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, which began after Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing and wounding of more than 145,000 Palestinians, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the genocide since September 23 to include most areas of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, through air strikes, and also began a ground invasion in the south.

The aggression on Lebanon resulted in a total of 2,897 deaths and 13,150 injuries, including a large number of children and women, in addition to about 1.4 million displaced persons. Most of the victims and displaced persons were recorded after September 23, according to Anadolu Agency’s monitoring of the latest official Lebanese data announced until Friday evening.

Every day, Hezbollah responds by launching missiles, drones, and artillery shells targeting military sites, intelligence headquarters, military gatherings, and settlements. While Israel announces some of its human and material losses, military censorship imposes a strict blackout on most of the losses, according to observers.

Source: Anadolu + Al Jazeera