Israeli forces capture a local Sunni Islamist official and Hamas ally in southern Lebanon

Beirut: In an operation in southern Lebanon early on Monday, Israelis forces seized a local official with a Sunni Islamist group and an ally of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and took him to Israel for questioning, the Israeli military and Lebanese state media reported.

Also on Monday, an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern Lebanese village of Yanouh, killing three people, including a child, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the strike.

According to the NNA agency, Atwi Atwi — a local official with the Sunni Islamist group al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group in English — was taken in the southern village of Hebbarieh, in the region of Hasbaya and close to the border with Israel.

A statement from the Israeli military said Israeli troops apprehended an Islamic Group official in a “targeted intelligence-based operation.” It did not release the official’s name.

The Islamic Group condemned the seizure, saying it was part of Israel’s daily attacks and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty. It called on the Lebanese state to work for the release of Atwi.

The Islamic Group is Lebanon’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Islamist political group, with an armed wing in Lebanon known as Fajr Forces.