Lebanese Authority Has Arrested 185 Israeli Spy Suspects

Illustration. (Unsplash/Tetiana SHYSHKINA)

JAKARTA - Lebanon has arrested 185 people suspected of collaborating with Israel since the Lebanese economic collapse three years ago, leaving many Lebanese in dire need of cash, two security sources said Wednesday.

The number has jumped significantly from the previous average of four or five arrests a year, one of the sources told AFP, as quoted by The National News, December 8.

"This is the first time that so many people have been arrested on charges of collaborating with Israel, and it's because of the crisis," said another security source.

Lebanon has been hit by a severe financial and economic crisis since 2019, causing the national currency to collapse, banks freeze deposits and plunge large sections of the population into poverty.

“This is a boon for Israelis, who are targeting Lebanese on social media, with job advertisements for bogus companies,” said a second source.

Recruiters would then call applicants, some of whom had no idea they had been contacted by an Israeli spy agency.

Of all those arrested since 2019, only three were suspected of working with Israel before the crisis, one of the sources said.

Meanwhile, of the 185 people arrested, 165 have so far been tried with 25 found guilty and sentenced. Of the suspects, two directly approached the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to work through its website.

Some of the detainees who suspected they had been contacted by Israeli intelligence, "did so anyway because they have no problem with Israel and hate Hezbollah", an Iran-backed armed group with great influence over political life in Lebanon, one source said.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah were involved in direct war for 33 days in Lebanon in 2006.

It is known that Lebanon remains technically at war with Israel, prohibiting its citizens from having contact with Israel or traveling there.

Earlier this year Lebanon arrested 21 people suspected of spying for Israel, a judicial source told AFP in January.

Additionally, Lebanese security services have arrested dozens over the years on suspicion of collaborating with Israel, with some receiving prison terms of up to 25 years.

Between April 2009 and 2014, Lebanese authorities detained more than 100 people accused of espionage for Israel, most of them members of the military or telecommunications employees, before the rate of arrests declined for several years.