Days after Israeli Special Forces reportedly nabbed the Hezbollah naval chief in a daring covert operation in eastern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the capture of an operative running an Iranian spying network in Syria.
The captured Syrian operative, identified as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, had “gathered intelligence on Israeli troops in the border area,” The London Times reported Sunday.
Al-Assi, who has been under IDF surveillance for some time, was extracted from the terrorist-held hostile territoriality in a bid to prevent possible cross-border attacks into northern Israel, the Israeli military revealed.
The operation by the IDF troops “to detain al-Assi prevented a future attack and led to the exposure of the operational methods of Iranian terror networks located near the Golan Heights,” the IDF said. “Al-Assi was brought to Israel for investigation.”
The IDF released a short clip showing the captured operative admitting to passing on information on Israeli troop movement and other intelligence over to the Iranians.
The covert operation “took place in recent months” and was led by the “soldiers of the Egoz Unit together with field interrogators from Unit 504,” the IDF said in a press statement Sunday.
The activities of the captured operative “included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network. Ali Soleiman al-Assi has been under IDF surveillance, was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel,” the statement added.
The IDF did not rule out carrying out further raids to neutralize terrorist threats coming from Iranian proxies in neighboring countries. The military vowed to “continue to operate to defend the sovereignty of the State of Israel and will not allow Iranian proxies in southern Syria to operate and threaten Israeli civilians.”
The IDF also released bodycam and night-vision footage showing an Israeli commando team rounding up the Syria-based operative.
As the Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon entered its second month, the IDF continued targeting Hezbollah’s terrorist leadership in the area.
Israeli fighter jets “eliminated the terrorist Riad Rida Ghazzawi in the area of Sultaniyeh in southern Lebanon. Ghazzawi served as a commander in the Hezbollah Radwan force’s anti-tank missile system and planned and executed a significant amount of terrorist attacks, including firing anti-tank missiles at Israeli civilians and at IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon,” the IDF announced Monday.
Another Israeli airstrike “eliminated Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon. Abu Ali Rida was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area,” the military added.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) and ground troops have been dismantling the terrorist infrastructure buildup across the country’s northern border.
Israeli fighter jets “struck numerous terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Safad El Battikh in southern Lebanon, including those with a Hezbollah Command Unit terrorist operating within them. The terrorist was responsible for the smuggling of weaponry to Hezbollah terrorist cells in the area and for attempts to rehabilitate Hezbollah terrorist operations in the Bint Jbeil area,” the IDF said.
Israeli troops “continue to conduct limited, localized, targeted raids in southern Lebanon, dismantling terrorist infrastructure, locating weapons, and eliminating terrorists. Over the past day, troops identified and struck a terrorist operating inside a structure in a town near the border,” the military added.
The IDF on Sunday announced the killing of another Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander who participated in the October 7 massacre.
An Israeli airstrike “eliminated the terrorist Ahmed Al-Dalu, a member of the Islamic Jihad’s Military Intelligence Unit. Ahmed Al-Dalu took part in the October 7th Massacre in the Israeli community of Kfar Aza,” the IDF declared Monday.
“An additional terrorist was eliminated alongside him. Throughout the war, Al-Dalu was involved in planning and executing terrorist attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the military added.
The PIJ, armed and funded by Iran, has embedded itself in Hamas’s terrorist operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Iran trained hundreds of Hamas and PIJ terrorists to execute the complex terrorist attack on October 7. “Roughly 500 militants from Hamas and …Palestinian Islamic Jihad” … “received specialized combat training in Iran,” The Wall Street Journal reported October 25, 2023.
Israeli armed forces were also carrying out counter-terror operations across Gaza. “IDF troops are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the northern and central Gaza Strip. Over the past day, the troops eliminated terrorists in close-quarters combat and in IAF strikes,” the military said Monday.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY