The Lebanese army on Thursday said it arrested a US citizen it suspects entered Lebanon illegally from Israel.
The army released a statement saying that a man it identified as Colin Emery has been arrested on the suspicion he crossed into the country on January 15.
It said he was found hiding in a neighbourhood in the southern city of Tyre, which is located some 19 km from the Israeli border.
Hezbollah’s Central Military Media network said Emery, who it identified as an "American Jew," was arrested while he was trying to purchase clothes in the city of Tyre.
It posted a picture purporting to show the suspect. The National could not verify the authenticity of the image.
The statement comes two days after local Lebanese media reported that a suspected Israeli settler crossed into Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s Central Military Media network on Tuesday said that a search was ongoing to locate “a missing person who is believed to be a settler in the village of Aita Shaab on the Lebanese side of the border.”
The Israeli army had said it suspected someone crossed into Lebanon from Israel after its troops identified damage to a border fence along the frontier.
The Lebanese-Israeli border has been tense since Israel last month launch an operation to identify and neitralise cross border tunnels it says are dug by Hezbollah.
