Israel Defense Forces troops arrested a senior terrorist from Jamaa Islamiya, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated terrorist organization, during a targeted raid in Southern Lebanon overnight Sunday, the military announced on Monday.
The targeted raid followed intelligence indications “gathered in recent weeks” according to the military.
The terrorist “was apprehended and then transferred for further questioning in Israeli territory,” the statement continued, adding that weapons were found in the structure in which the terrorist was apprehended.
The army noted that Jamaa Islamiya, which maintains close relations with Hamas, “advanced terror attacks against the State of Israel and its civilians in the north” throughout the two years of war following the Gaza terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.
“IDF troops will continue to operate to remove any threat against the State of Israel,” the statement concluded.
In late November, a counter-terrorism raid in southern Syria’s Beit Jinn area, which sought to apprehend Jamaa Islamiya operatives, left six Israeli soldiers wounded, three of them seriously.
Seven months earlier, in April, an Israeli Air Force strike in Lebanon killed Hussein Izzat Mohammad Atwi, a top Jamaa Islamiya operative.
According to the IDF, Atwi was a key figure in advancing terrorist activity against Israel from Lebanese territory, including rocket fire, infiltration attempts and coordinating terrorist infrastructure along the border.
Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror army opened a second front against Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, launching rocket and missile attacks on Israeli communities.
During the war, Sunni Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya joined Hezbollah’s terror campaign, coordinating attacks on Israel from Southern Lebanon.
The fighting ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal on Nov. 27, 2024, which required Hezbollah’s disarmament and the deployment of the Lebanese army to ensure a monopoly over all arms in the country.
