The Israeli army said on Monday that it had arrested a senior member of Jamaa Islamiya during an overnight raid in southern Lebanon.
“Overnight [Sunday], following intelligence indications gathered in recent weeks, [Israeli army] soldiers conducted a targeted raid on a structure in the Har Dov area and apprehended a senior terrorist from the Jamaa Islamiya terrorist organisation,” the army said.
Jamaa Islamiya, also known as the Islamic Group, is a Lebanese Sunni political party and armed faction with ties to the Palestinian group Hamas. It is considered to be an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It has an armed wing that took part in the attacks on Israel and has lost a handful of fighters since the outbreak of the cross-border fighting on October 8, 2023.
The man was transferred for questioning in Israeli territory, the Israeli military said, adding that weapons were found in where he was apprehended.
The Israeli army added that the group had advanced “terror” attacks against Israel and its civilians in the north during its war with Hezbollah before a ceasefire was signed in November 2024, after more than a year of war.
“Troops will continue to operate to remove any threat against the state of Israel,” it added.
Jamaa Islamiya confirmed that the Israeli troops infiltrated into the town of Habbariyeh in Hasbaya District and abducted the group's official, Atawi Atawi from his home.
Condemning the move, the group said it holds Israel “responsible for any harm that may befall him”.
The Israeli operation was also condemned by Lebanese officials.
Israel claims that armed groups in Lebanon are rebuilding their capacity in the southern areas near the border and carries out raids and attacks there despite the ceasefire.
On Monday, the Israeli army said it struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the Yanouh area in southern Lebanon “in response to Hezbollah’s repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings”.
The drone strike killed three people, including a three-year-old boy, Ali Hassan Jaber, and his father Hassan Jaber.
The original target was Hezbollah member Ahmad Ali Salameh, whose death the group later confirmed.
Lebanon said Israel has breached the ceasefire thousands of times. The National witnessed one of these infringements on February 6, when an Israeli drone passed over a reporter's head near the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border.
Unifil, the UN peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon, says it has not seen evidence of Hezbollah rebuilding in the border region despite the Israeli claims.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the ceasefire have killed more than 100 civilians, according to the UN.
Hezbollah, a powerful paramilitary group and political party, was battered in a year-long conflict with Israel that ended with the US-brokered ceasefire. Under the terms of the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw and disarm south of the Litani River while Israel was to withdraw fully from Lebanese territory.
Israel and the US have since pushed for Hezbollah’s full disarmament nationwide. Lebanese leaders and the country's armed forces have committed publicly to disarming the Iran-backed group to establish a state monopoly on weapons – something that has not existed since the outbreak of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1975.
In Gaza, the Israeli army said on Monday that it killed four militants who “exited an underground tunnel shaft and fired towards” soldiers in Rafah area in southern Gaza.
“No IDF injuries were reported. Following identification, the troops eliminated the terrorists,” it said.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas and other groups launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 240.
Israel immediately began a large-scale campaign in Gaza that levelled most of the coastal enclave and killed at least 71,000 people.
A ceasefire in October halted two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
