Senior Hezbollah operative captured in Lebanon, Israeli military says – Irvine Times

The operation was carried out in the northern Lebanese city of Batroun, the official said, without giving the name of the person detained.

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken by a group of gunmen who landed ashore in Batroun on Friday.

“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the official said.

Residents of the block where the man was captured 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 government agency was conducting a security operation,” said Mr. Delbani, who was displaced from southern Lebanon a month ago when the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out.

He said he saw people down on the bank from his balcony and they again shouted for him to come inside.

Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hami told Al-Jadeed TV that the man was a civilian ship captain. He graduates in 2022 and joins the Batroun Institute of Marine Science and Technology for additional courses at the end of September.

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

Candace Ardiel, a spokeswoman for UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon, denied claims by some local journalists who said peacekeepers had helped the landing force in the operation.

The UN mission, known as Unifil, has a naval force monitoring the coast.

“Misinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ms Ardiel said.

Meanwhile, an attack on a central Israeli city on Saturday wounded 11 people, while Iran’s supreme leader vowed a punitive response to Israel’s attack last week, and Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza and Lebanon.

The pre-dawn strike on Tire was one of several barrages launched by Lebanon.

Many of the shells were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, while air raid sirens sounded in parts of the country throughout the day and others landed in unpopulated areas.

Magen David Adom’s emergency services said 11 people were injured by shrapnel and glass shards in a direct hit on a building in Tira, populated mostly by Israeli Arabs.

The footage shows extensive damage to the roof and top floor of the three-storey building and the cars underneath.

The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it used rockets and explosive drones to attack military and intelligence facilities in northern and central Israel.

It claimed responsibility for firing rockets at the Israeli army’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and for firing rockets at military installations in Zvulun.

Hezbollah also said it had attacked Israel’s central Palmahim air base with explosive drones, saying they had “achieved accurate hits on targets”.

The Israeli military did not confirm whether any of the three Hezbollah targets were hit and said it had no comment on the group’s claims.

Hezbollah also said its fighters fired rocket volleys at northern Israeli towns, including Dalton, Yessud Ha-Ma’ala and Bar Yohai.

An Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Saturday killed one person and wounded 15 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Israeli jets resumed strikes on the southern suburb of Dahiya overnight Friday, following a four-day lull in the capital.