Lebanese group accuses Israel of abducting its leader in raid

A Lebanese party with an armed wing has accused Israel of abducting one of its members during a cross-border raid in southern Lebanon.

The al-Jamaa al-Islamiya accused Israel on Monday of seizing its official Atwi Atwi from his home in the Hasbaiyya district and taking him to an unknown location.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, which has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks against Israel during the war with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, condemned “infiltration” by Israeli forces.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that, following “intelligence indications gathered in recent weeks”, Israeli soldiers “conducted a targeted raid … and apprehended a senior terrorist”.

The man was “transferred for further questioning in Israeli territory”, the army added, accusing al-Jamaa al-Islamiya of having launched “attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians in the north”.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli troops entered the area at about 4am (02:00 GMT) before abducting Atwi, who is a former mayor of the village of al-Habbariyeh.

In a statement issued late on Monday, Hezbollah condemned the “serious aggression” carried out by Israeli forces to abduct Atwi Atwi from his home.

“This dangerous development signals the beginning of a new phase of Israeli aggression and lawlessness, based on incursions, kidnappings, and abductions, which exposes all the people of southern Lebanon to direct danger and places them under constant threat,” it said in a statement, calling on the Lebanese government to take deterrent measures.

Israel has frequently carried out military operations in southern Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire aimed at ending more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Hajj Hassan said last month that Israel was holding “20 Lebanese prisoners”, alleging 10 had been abducted “inside Lebanese territory after the ceasefire”.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill four, including security officer and child

Separately on Monday, three people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon, Lebanese media reported.

The attack targeted a vehicle in the centre of Yanouh town in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, the NNA reported.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted Ahmad Ali Salami, who it alleged was Hezbollah’s head of artillery and had been working to restore the group’s capabilities.

In addition to Salami, the attack killed a member of Lebanon’s security forces and his three-year-old child, who were passing by, according to the NNA.

The Israeli military said the incident was “under review” after it was made “aware of the claim that uninvolved civilians were killed”.

Later on Monday, the Health Ministry reported that Israeli gunfire killed one person in the border village of Aita al-Shaab, with the Israeli military saying it killed a Hezbollah member.

It alleged he was “gathering intelligence on [Israeli] troops and operated to rehabilitate Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon”.

In addition to recurring attacks, the Israeli army still has troops deployed on five border positions in Lebanon that it deems strategic.

Under the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanese territory while Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters from south of the Litani River, about 27km (17 miles) north of the border with Israel, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure there.