Ex-Hezbollah fighter and former nurse suspected of spying for Israel

BEIRUT — An ex-Hezbollah fighter and former nurse who worked in al-Rassoul al-Azam Hospital in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, is being investigated for suspected collaboration with Israel, a judicial source told L'Orient Today.

The Military Court, by which the suspect is to be questioned, has set a date for the interrogation, according to the source, but no further details are available. The man was initially interrogated by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in February, when he was arrested, during which he admitted to having worked for the Mossad, according to al-Akhbar, a local newspaper close to Hezbollah. A source close to the ISF declined to comment on the situation.

Al-Akhbar's version

Al-Akhbar, the first outlet to disclose the case, described the man in its report as an ex-Hezbollah fighter from south Lebanon who was deployed with the party in Syria. According to the newspaper, the 29-year-old suspect admitted during his interrogation by the police that he had "been in contact with the Mossad [Israel's foreign intelligence agency] in 2023 and 2024 and worked for them."

Lebanon's 1955 law on boycotting Israel prohibits interaction between Lebanese and Israelis. It prohibits any individual or legal entity from contacting Israelis or people residing in Israel. It also prohibits all commercial, financial and other transactions. The penalty for violating this law is three to ten years of hard labor.

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According to al-Akhbar, the nurse provided "his Israeli employers with security information, photos, and coordinates before he was arrested by the Internal Security Forces on Feb. 20 in the southern Lebanese village of Kharayeb, in the Saida district. The newspaper added that the military investigative judge noted the suspect could face a prison sentence of three to 15 years.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in a war of attrition along the Lebanese-Israeli border since October, in parallel with the Gaza war. Daily cross-border attacks are almost in their twelfth month, and Hezbollah has lost several high ranking members in assassinations by Israel, including most recently, the killing of top military commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut's southern suburbs.

After October, the Israeli "operator asked [the suspect] for information about the hostilities taking place in the vicinity of his residence and the movements of Hezbollah members in the area", Al-Akhbar writes, adding that the nurse's employers also asked him if he could rejoin Hezbollah "after he froze his membership due to his relocation from Beirut to the South."

The report says that the suspect received a total payment of $7,500 in exchange for his collaboration.

The buzz on social media

Following the reveal of the nurse's detention by Al-Akhbar, X users heavily criticized him and called for authorities to punish him. 

"7,500 dollars, ... to sell your country, your people, and hand over our youth ... to the fire of the Zionist enemy... How much did you cost the families of the martyrs tears and despair," reads a post on X by Zeina Karam who claims to be a Free Patriotic Movement member.

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Hezbollah faces a war of spies

There were also sectarian comments discussing the case. Nemer Assaf, a supporter of the Kataeb party, said: "He does not belong to the Lebanese Forces or the Kataeb Party. He comes from Hezbollah's environment." Hezbollah supporters regularly accuse Kataeb and Lebanese Forces members of spying for Israel.

Meanwhile, another X user, Hicham Shreif, said: the suspect "is a Shiite agent, so what? Over the past years and months, several Christian and Sunni agents have been arrested, so what?"

In May 2022, after the interior ministry announced the dismantling of 17 Israeli spy networks, Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said “Israel is in a rush to recruit spies and is doing so unprofessionally” while a judicial official told AFP that Israeli spy handlers exploited the suspected collaborators’ “difficult living and social conditions, which made it easier to recruit them.”