Israeli forces have captured a senior Hezbollah operative in northern Lebanon, the Israeli military official said

BATROUN, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli naval forces have captured a high-ranking Hezbollah operative in northern Lebanon, an Israeli military official said Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese sea captain who was taken by a group of gunmen who landed on the coast near the northern city of Batroun on Friday.

“The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” the military official said, without providing the name of the person in custody.

Two Lebanese military officials confirmed to The Associated Press that a naval force landed in Batroun, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Beirut, and abducted a Lebanese national. Neither identified the man or said if he was believed to have ties to Hezbollah group in Lebanon. They did not confirm whether the gunmen were an Israeli force.

Speaking to Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV station, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie declined to elaborate or answer questions about whether it was believed to be an Israeli operation.

Three Lebanese judicial officials told the AP that the incident occurred at dawn on Friday, adding that the captain may have links to Hezbollah. Officials said an investigation was looking into whether the man was linked to Hezbollah or working for an Israeli spy agency, and an Israeli force came to his rescue.

Both military and judicial officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details about the incident or the ongoing investigation.

Hezbollah issued a statement calling what happened a “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area.” The statement did not provide details or confirm whether one of the Hezbollah members was captured by Israel.

Israel has done it in the past commando operations deep in Lebanon to kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials.

Residents of the apartment block where the man was captured said the armed group posed as state security.

“We were terrified. They broke into the apartment next to ours,” Hussein Delbani told The Associated Press, near where the man was captured. “We thought a state agency was doing a security operation,” said Delbani, who was displaced from southern Lebanon a month ago when the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out.

He said he saw people from the coast from his balcony and they shouted again to come inside.

Hamie told Al-Jadeed that the man was a civilian ship captain. He graduated in 2022 and at the end of September joined the Institute of Maritime Sciences and Technology in Batroun for further training. Hamie said the man lived about 300 meters (980 feet) from the institute.

Hamie’s statements came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 armed men taking a man from outside a house, his face covered with a shirt.

Kandice Ardiel, spokeswoman for the UN peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, denied allegations by local journalists who said the peacekeepers had helped the landing force in the operation. The UN mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force monitoring the coast.

“Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and endanger peacekeepers,” Ardiel said.

____

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Sally Abou Aljoud in Beirut and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage at