Israeli forces land on Batroun shore, abduct 'Hezbollah official'

A 25-strong Israeli naval force made a landing on Batroun's shore at dawn Friday and abducted Hezbollah official Imad Fadel Amhaz from a chalet, media reports and security sources said on Saturday.

"Israeli Navy SEALs captured last night Imad Amhaz -- a senior member of Hezbollah's naval force -- in an operation in Northern Lebanon," an Israeli official told U.S. news portal Axios.

"Amhaz was detained in order to interrogate him and learn more about Hezbollah's naval operations," the official added.

An Israeli security source had earlier confirmed to Sky News Arabia that an abduction took place in Batroun, as Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted the Israeli army as confirming that "Israeli forces captured a Hezbollah official deep in Lebanon."

Caretaker Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh told Al-Jadeed TV that the man abducted is a civilian sea captain for civilian and commercial ships, and that he was undergoing a one-month course at a maritime institute in Batroun, where he also rented a chalet.

He graduated in 2022 and in late September joined the Batroun's Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute for additional courses, Hamieh said, adding that that the man lived roughly 300 meters from the institute.

Hamieh's remarks came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 soldiers taking away a man from in front a house, his face covered with his shirt.

Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the U.N. 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 U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force that monitors the coast.

"Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ardiel said.

Israel has carried out in the past commando operations deep inside Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said they were checking reports of the incident.

Lebanon's official National News agency said an "unidentified military force" carried out a "sea landing" on the shore of Batroun, south of Tripoli, at dawn on Friday.

The force "went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, kidnapping a Lebanese man... and sailing away into the open sea on a speedboat," the NNA said.

An acquaintance of the abductee identified him as a student at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute (MARSATI) in Batroun.

He was taken from student housing near the Batroun institute, but was a resident of the Shiite-majority town of Qmatiyeh further south, said the acquaintance who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security concerns.

He was completing courses to become a sea captain, the source told AFP, adding that the man was in his 30s and was well known by the teaching staff at the center.

The Christian-majority city of Batroun has been relatively sheltered from the Israel-Hezbollah war that has pummelled south Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The war since September 23 has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures though the real number is likely higher due to data gaps.