Lebanon's security forces have arrested a Lebanese man on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad spy agency and collaboration with the regime’s authorities through gathering intelligence and involvement in targeted killing operations.
According to a report published by the Arabic-language al-Akhbar daily newspaper on Thursday, the man, whose identity was not immediately known and is said to be a resident of the southern city of Sidon, was detained by members of the General Security Directorate.
The man reportedly has no connection to the 17 Israeli spy networks recently busted in Lebanon in one of the largest nationwide crackdowns in recent years, and is apparently more formidable than those captured.
His activities went beyond collecting data and information and taking photographs of sensitive sites to being involved in a network of assassinations and dangerously undercover operations.
The man reportedly facilitated the entry of Israeli officers into Lebanon, their tours and exits at the end of their missions.
Informed sources highlighted that investigators from the General Security Directorate have come up with compelling evidence that the unnamed man was heavily involved in espionage activities in favor of the Israeli intelligence service.
Moreover, there is unequivocal evidence that the man was involved in the assassination of brothers Mahmoud and Nidal al-Majzoub, the two senior officials from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement who were killed in a car bomb explosion on May 26, 2006.
The development came less than a week after al-Akhbar newspaper, citing judicial sources, reported that Lebanese security forces had arrested a journalist on charges of spying for Israel's Mossad spy agency and collaboration with Israeli authorities through writing defamatory articles about the Hezbollah resistance movement and turning the public opinion against the group.
The newspaper added that the Lebanese journalist wrote “dozens” of anti-Hezbollah pieces at the request of the Tel Aviv regime, receiving between $300 and $700 per article.
The journalist was also told to draw connections between Hezbollah and the massive August 4, 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, which killed more than 200 people and wounded 6,500 others.
He crafted false evidence in his pieces, and faulty analyses designed to implicate Hezbollah in the devastating blast, and pit ordinary Lebanese people against the resistance group.