Lebanon to file UNSC complaint over Israel's abduction of its citizen, IDF calls the man Hezbollah operative

As the tensions in West Asia continue to escalate, Lebanon on Saturday said that it will file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after Israel abducted a Lebanese national. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) argued that the Lebanese citizen they abducted was a Hezbollah operative.

The man was kidnapped on Friday in a suspected Israeli naval operation in Batroun, about 30 kilometres north of Beirut. The Lebanese authorities maintained that the abductee was a sea captain and denied that he was a Hezbollah operative. Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office released a statement on the matter which stated that the Lebanese premier instructed his Foreign Minister Abdullah Bouhabib to file a UN complaint over the abduction.

The statement said that Mikati had contacted Army Commander General Joseph Aoun to be briefed on the ongoing investigation into the circumstances of the case. The prime minister also reached out to the command of the UN peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL), which confirmed that it is conducting the necessary investigations and coordinating with the army on this matter.

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In the Saturday statement, Mikati emphasized the need to “expedite the investigations to clarify the circumstances of this case and to set matters right.” Meanwhile, multiple media reports named the abductee as Imad Amhaz. The Israeli forces went on to call him a “significant source of knowledge” in the Iran-backed militant group’s naval force.”

According to The Times of Israel, Amhaz was taken to Israel to be questioned by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT, or human intelligence — on Hezbollah’s naval operations.

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While speaking to a Lebanese news outlet Ali Hamie, the country’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, claimed that Amhaz was a captain of civilian ships and was studying at a civilian naval institute. Images posted to social media showed Amhaz in what appeared to be a navy uniform.

Amid the chaos, the IDF confirmed on Saturday that around 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed by ground troops and in airstrikes since the start of the ground offensive in southern Lebanon a month ago. The Israeli forces have escalated air campaign in Lebanon since late September against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Israel’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip.

With inputs from the agencies.