Beirut, Mar. 22, (dpa/GNA) – At least two people were detained and handed over to the Lebanese security authorities in connection with the assassination of a Hamas official, Hadi Mustafa, in southern Lebanon, Palestinian and Lebanese security sources told dpa on Friday.
The pair are suspected of spying for Israel, the sources said.
“After the cowardly assassination of the Qasami martyr Hadi Mustafa (Abu Shadi) … the factions and Islamic forces carried out vigorous field follow-up,” read to a statement by the Palestinian factions in the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near Tyre, Lebanon.
The statement added that the individuals concerned had been handed over to Lebanese security services.
The statement did not give any further details.
A Palestinian source in the Rashidiyeh camp told dpa that two boys, one Syrian and one Lebanese, who are younger than 18 years old, were caught in the camp in south Lebanon.
Under questioning, they reportedly said they were hired by a Lebanese man to monitor the movement of the slain Hamas official.
A Lebanese judicial source in Beirut said two arrest warrants were issued by military judge Fadi Sawan after finding maps in their possession showing areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a hotbed of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, as well as areas near Palestinian refugee camps.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas confirmed earlier this month that Mustafa was based in the Rashidiyeh camp. The Israeli military said Mustafa was responsible for terrorist attacks on Israel as well as Jewish targets in several other countries.
Since Hamas led unprecedented attacks and massacres in Israel on October 7, Hamas-allied Hezbollah has traded attacks with the Israeli military almost daily on the Lebanese-Israeli border.