BEIRUT: Lebanon has arrested 185 people suspected of collaborating with the hostile state of Israel as many Lebanese are desperate for cash after its economic collapse three years ago, two security sources said on Wednesday. told AFP.
The number is up significantly from the previous average of four or five arrests a year, one of the sources said.
“This is the first time that so many people have been arrested for collaborating with Israel, and this is because of the crisis,” another security source said. Both were speaking on condition of anonymity.
Lebanon has been suffering from a severe financial and economic crisis since 2019 which has seen the national currency crash, banks freeze reserves and the majority of the population plunge into extreme poverty.
“It was a boon for the Israelis, who targeted the Lebanese with job ads for phoney companies on social media,” another source said.
A recruiter would then call the applicants, some of whom were unaware that they had been contacted by an Israeli spy agency.
Of all those arrested since 2019, only three were allegedly working with Israel before the crisis, a source said. Out of 185, 165 have been prosecuted so far and 25 have been convicted.
Lebanon is technically at war with Israel and prohibits citizens from having any contact with or traveling to Israel.
Two of the suspects had contacted Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency directly for work through their website.
Several detainees suspected of being approached by Israeli intelligence “were held anyway because they had no problem with Israel and hated Hezbollah,” one source said. “, an Iranian-backed armed group that has great influence over political life in Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a 33-day war in Lebanon in 2006.
Earlier this year, Lebanon arrested 21 people suspected of being spies for Israel, a judicial source told AFP in January.