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.
“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the official said.
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.
.@UNIFIL_ has not been involved in facilitating any kidnapping or other violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Disinformation and false rumours are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk.
— Kandice Ardiel (@hikandice) November 2, 2024
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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.
Meanwhile, an attack on a central Israeli town on Saturday injured 11 people as Iran’s supreme leader vowed a punishing response to Israel’s attack last week and Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza and Lebanon.
The predawn strike on Tira was one of several barrages fired from Lebanon.
Many of the projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defences as air raid sirens rang out in parts of the country throughout the day, and others landed in unpopulated areas.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said 11 people were hurt by shrapnel and glass shards in a direct strike on a building in Tira, a predominantly Israeli Arab town.
Footage showed significant damage to the roof and top floor of the three-story building and cars below.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it had used missiles and explosive drones to target military and intelligence facilities in northern and central Israel.
It claimed responsibility for firing missiles toward the Israeli military’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot, on the edge of Tel Aviv, and for firing rockets toward military facilities in Zvulun.
Hezbollah also said it had targeted central Israel’s Palmachim Air Base with explosive drones, saying they “scored precise hits on targets”.
Israel’s military did not confirm whether any of the three Hezbollah targets had been hit and said it had no comment on the group’s claims.
Hezbollah also said that its fighters fired salvos of rockets into northern Israeli towns including Dalton, Yesud HaMa’ala and Bar Yohai.
An Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Saturday killed one person and wounded 15 others, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Israeli planes resumed strikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight on Friday, following a four-day lull in the capital.
