Senior Hezbollah operative captured in Lebanon, Israeli military official says

Israeli naval forces captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, an Israeli military official said on Saturday.

The operation took place in the northern Lebanese town of Batroun, the official said, without providing the name of the person they detained.

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast at Batroun on Friday.

Residents of the apartment building where the man was seized said the armed group introduced 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 doing a security operation,” said Mr Delbani, who was displaced from south Lebanon a month ago when the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted.

He said he saw from his balcony people down on the coast and they screamed again for him to go inside.

Minister of public works and transport Ali Hamie told Al-Jadeed TV the man was a captain of civilian ships. He graduated in 2022 and in late September joined the Batroun’s Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute for additional courses.

He was speaking shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 armed men taking away a man from in front of a house, his face covered with his shirt.

Kandice Ardiel, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon, denied allegations by some local journalists who said that the peacekeepers helped the landing force in the operation.

The UN mission, known as Unifil, has a maritime force that monitors the coast.

“Disinformation and false rumours are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ms Ardiel said.