Israeli unit kidnaps man in Lebanon it describes as a Hezbollah operative

Imad Amhaz had been temporarily residing in the small coastal town of Batroun, in northern Lebanon, near the maritime training institute where he was enrolled, according to his family. At dawn on Friday, November 1, while the night was still dark, according to CCTV footage, he was abducted by around 20 armed men. They didn’t bother to be discreet: Amhaz’s neighbors heard them forcing open the door. Speaking in Arabic, they said they were members of a Lebanese security service, before leaving by sea.

It was not until the following day that the official Lebanese news agency shed light on details of the incident, which has since caused a stir in the country. Amid the context of the war, as the September 23 Israeli offensive launched on Lebanon has killed over 1,900 people, suspicions that the kidnapping was an operation led by Israel, which is seeking to destroy Hezbollah, immediately sprung into being. On Saturday evening, an Israeli military official announced in a statement that an elite navy unit, “Flotilla 13,” had carried out a “special operation” in Batroun and “apprehended” a “senior operative of Hezbollah,” who he said was undergoing interrogation in Israel.

Hezbollah has mostly remained silent. On Saturday, it merely described this rare kidnapping as “Zionist aggression.” Lebanese authorities have also said very little about this kidnapping, which is under investigation.

According to three judicial sources cited by the American news agency Associated Press, the investigation is seeking to establish whether Amhaz was abducted for his ties to Hezbollah or because he had been working for an Israeli intelligence service – in which case he would have been exfiltrated. A dozen SIM cards were found at his home, along with at least two passports. Most of the CCTV cameras near the kidnapping site had reportedly been deactivated. The operation is said to have only lasted a few minutes. The investigation will also have to shed light on signals recorded by military radars, which could help to understand which vessel entered Lebanese waters. These radars had their presence reinforced in the early 2020s, to counter illegal migrant departures from Lebanon to Cyprus.

Israel’s ‘freedom of movement’ in Lebanon

Located in a Christian area, Batroun is a popular tourist resort for Lebanese people. Ahmaz originally hailed from a Shiite village in the east of the country, and had studied at the city’s Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute (MARSATI). His father has denied that Amhaz had any connection with Hezbollah, and asserted that his son was a commercial ship captain.

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