The suspect shortly after his arrest by State Security. (Credit: @DGSGLB/X)
BEIRUT — A Palestinian national was arrested in southern Lebanon under the suspicion he was seeking to be recruited by Israeli intelligence because he had "followed the official Mossad Facebook page," General Security (GS) announced on Tuesday.
"As part of the General Directorate of State Security's missions to combat espionage activities, on Oct. 20, 2025, a patrol from the Southern regional directorate arrested a Palestinian suspected of communicating with the Israeli enemy, for following the official Mossad Facebook page," GS wrote in a statement posted on X. "The required legal measures were taken against him under instructions from the competent judge."
According to information shared with L'Orient Today by a source close to the case, the detained man is in his 30s and is a resident of Saida. GS had found he regularly visited the Mossad website, where he "interacted" with the posts, and allegedly tried to contact Mossad through Facebook Messenger, the platform's messaging service.
"What reinforced the institution's suspicions was that the man checked the Mossad recruitment section daily," the source added. "He then deleted all the messages he had written."
The man was arrested "on orders from the government commissioner at the military tribunal, Claude Ghanem," and transferred to the Internal Security Forces intelligence services, where his phone will be examined. "The deleted messages will almost certainly be recovered to learn more," the source added.
Lebanon and Israel are officially in a state of war, and any contact with the enemy is punishable by imprisonment.
In recent months, Lebanese authorities have arrested 32 people, either convicted or suspected of having transmitted information to Israel aimed at targeting Hezbollah leaders, a judicial official told AFP.
Much of Hezbollah's leadership was assassinated by Israel during last year's war, leading to strong suspicions of deep infiltration in the party and in Lebanon.
