Lebanon Arrests Five Mossad Spies

I-24 NEWS – Lebanese authorities said on Wednesday that they had arrested five residents on suspicion of spying for Israel, local media outlets reported. Two of the accused were Lebanese, two were Nepalese immigrants, while a fifth was a Palestinian refugee. The two Nepalese suspects were women and the rest were men.

Authorities said the accused had confessed during questioning and admitted to making phone contact with the Israeli embassies in Turkey, Jordan, the United Kingdom, and Nepal with offers to provide information.

Lebanon has arrested and prosecuted alleged spies for Israel on several occasions.

In November 2015, authorities said they had arrested two Lebanese nationals and a Syrian on allegations of spying for Israel.

The statement said the three had confessed to the charges against them, admitting they had gathered information on individuals and security and military targets.

The three also allegedly filmed “sensitive” roads and other areas in southern Lebanon “and sent the footage to their employers to be used in later attacks.”

Among the trio was a Lebanese man who had worked for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for two decades.

In January 2015, Lebanese terror group Hezbollah indirectly admitted reports that an Israeli spy infiltrated its senior ranks.

“There is no party in the world as big and sophisticated as Hezbollah that was able to stand with the same steadfastness despite some major infiltrations,” Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told the Lebanese Al Nur radio station.

“Hezbollah has worked intensely on battling espionage among its ranks and in its entourage. Some cases [of espionage] surfaced, and they are very limited cases,” Qassem said.

His comments were believed to refer to the exposure and arrest of Mohammed Shawareb, who allegedly spied for Israel while serving as an aide to Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

————————————

PRESS TV – Lebanon’s General Security Directorate’s media office made the announcement on Wednesday, noting that the arrestees had confessed to passing information to Mossad via the Israel embassies in Turkey, Jordan, Britain and Nepal.

“The General Security Directorate arrested two Lebanese, one of them born in 1977 and the other in 1982, as well as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon born in 1992, and two Nepalese women born in 1991 and 1993 on the offense of spying in favor of embassies of the Israeli enemy abroad,” read the statement.

The statement stressed that the individuals were arrested following the intensive monitoring of Israeli intelligence operations in the country as part of Lebanon’s activities aimed at dismantling similar networks.

It added that the two spies from Nepal were also engaged in recruiting other Nepalese workers in Lebanon.

“After their interrogation, the arrestees were referred to the competent court on the offense of collaboration with the Israeli enemy, and work is underway to arrest the rest of the people involved,” noted that statement.