An individual with close ties to Hezbollah was accused of being a “high-level Israeli agent” and arrested in Beirut last week, a judicial source told Agence France-Presse and Arab media sites earlier this week.
The individual was accused of providing intelligence to Israel that ultimately allowed the Jewish state to kill four top-tier security leaders in the terror group. The figures were reported to include Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah commander who was assassinated in August 2024, and Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah's Operations Division, who was assassinated in September 2024.
Shukr, who was wanted for his role in a 1983 bombing attack that killed roughly 300 American and French soldiers in Beirut and for his role in the rocket attack that led to the deaths of 12 children in Majdal Shams, was killed in an airstrike on an apartment building in Haret Hreik, a neighborhood located in the Dahiyeh suburb of southern Beirut.
Aqil, who was a principal member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, which was responsible for the bombings of the US Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 and the US Marine barracks in October 1983, was killed in an Israel Air Force strike during a meeting in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut along with 15 other high-ranking members of the terrorist group.
Arab media reported that the alleged spy belonged to the Al Khalifa family, though some members of the historic clan have been known to be critical of non-state armed groups in the past.
The official told AFP that “a high-level Israeli agent was arrested last week in Beirut.”
“He was very close to commanders in Hezbollah, and possessed a wide range of information due to his relationship with them,” the official claimed, adding that the individual was arrested at Beirut’s airport before he could board a flight to Iraq.
Though the individual was said to have been born in southern Lebanon, he was reported to have made frequent trips to Iraq, where his wife is from, and then on to Turkey, where he would ”meet with officers and agents linked to the Israeli Mossad, and provide them with information about targets he was gathering data about in Beirut.”
Suspected spy is 'one of the most dangerous agents'
A Lebanese judicial source familiar with the information told the Arabic paper Asharq Al-Awsat that the detainee "is considered one of the most dangerous agents given his close ties to party officials and his ability, according to the initial investigations, to access sensitive information used in operations targeting prominent leaders."
Notably, Asharq reported that the arrest comes as part of a series of dozens of detentions of individuals accused of spying for Israel.
A judicial source told AFP in October that more than 30 people had been arrested on suspicion of providing Israel with precise information on Hezbollah facilities and the movements of its members during the previous war with Israel.