Video: Seaborne Israeli Raid Nabs Alleged Hezbollah Naval Officer
On Friday night, a team of Israeli commandos landed by sea in the town of Batroun, Lebanon and abducted Imad Amhaz, an alleged naval officer belonging to terrorist group Hezbollah. The raid demonstrated an ability to conduct a large-scale seaborne special operations raid in Israel's near abroad, about 75 nautical miles north of the border.
The raid involved at least 20 commandos from the elite Shayetet 13 unit of the Israeli Navy, the nation's own equivalent of the U.S. Navy SEALs. Part of the operation was captured by a security camera on an adjacent building, and the footage shows a large team of heavily-armed soldiers marching a captive off at a fast pace.
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According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Amhaz will be delivered to Military Intelligence Directorate Unit 504, which will extract his knowledge of Hezbollah's waterborne operations. He is believed to be a "significant source of knowledge" of the group's naval capabilities.
Hezbollah is a well-resourced terrorist organization, but it lacks a surface navy in the conventional sense. Its naval assets are limited to small craft and missile batteries: it is known to possess shore-launched YJ-83 / C-802 antiship cruise missiles, likely augmented with a limited number of Russian-built Yakhont antiship missiles.
Ali Hamieh, Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, claimed Saturday that Amhaz is a civilian merchant mariner affiliated with a maritime academy - not a Hezbollah operative. Images circulating on social media show portrait photos of Amhaz in an officer's uniform, but few details of his biography are available.
Lebanese media have accused a nearby German Navy monitoring mission of joining in the Israeli raid. One German frigate is deployed off the Lebanese coast as part of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon. In a statement, UNIFIL said that it "has no involvement in facilitating any kidnapping or any other violation of Lebanese sovereignty."
The Israeli military is currently operating inside southern Lebanon in an attempt to suppress Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist organization that has been attacking Israeli settlements with rockets since late 2023. About 60,000 Israeli nationals have evacuated the border zone near Lebanon, and the IDF operation is intended to eliminate Hezbollah's ability to interfere with their safe return.