A Lebanese newspaper revealed in a report the method used by the Israeli Mossad to recruit an agent through social media.
In its report, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar explained that “since Operation ‘Flood of Al-Aqsa’ (launched by Hamas) on October 7, 2023, the Lebanese security services have arrested a number of collaborators with the enemy, including a nurse who provided his Israeli handlers with security information, photos and coordinates, before the Information Branch was able to arrest him.”
According to the report, "the military investigating judge demanded a sentence of 3 years and 15 years in prison for the agent, which is, as usual, a lenient sentence for someone who deals with an enemy state in times of war."
Al-Akhbar indicated in its report that “the Israeli intelligence’s method of recruiting Muhammad S. (born 1995), the son of the southern town of al-Tiri, was no different from the recruitment operations that the Mossad has been active in for years via social media, as Muhammad was interacting with posts on Facebook, and putting “likes” on advertisements for restaurants and cars that enticed him to win prizes, when the Israeli operator caught him in the spring of 2023.”
The report explained that “a message in Arabic reached him (the accused) via the Messenger application from a person named “Tom”, who claimed that he works for a humanitarian association that helps the needy with money or by securing jobs, and that the association has centers all over the world, and in Lebanon in the city of Zahle”, where “Tom noticed Muhammad’s interaction with him, so he began asking personal questions about him and his family, such as his name, age, sect, profession, and the political affiliation of the residents of the area in which he lives”. The report also confirmed that the young man, indeed, emptied everything he had on hand: he is single, currently unemployed, previously worked as a nurse at Al-Rasoul Al-Aazam Hospital where his father works as a guard, and the residents of the area in which he lives are loyal to “Hezbollah” and the “Amal Movement”, as “Tom gathered as much information as possible in the first conversation, which lasted about an hour, and ended it with a promise to communicate again”.
The report added that "two days later, Tom contacted Mohammed in writing and asked if he could contact him by phone via Messenger. Tom's accent was Lebanese during the call, and they had a normal conversation during which the caller assured Mohammed that the association would help him, and that a colleague of his named Amir would contact him via WhatsApp from a foreign number."
For his part, “the detainee confirmed to investigators that the matter raised his suspicions, wondering why the association was so enthusiastic about communicating with him, but he decided to continue communicating to find out where things were going. Five days passed before he received a message via WhatsApp from “Amir” in which he said that he had been assigned by the association to follow up with him to find out how he could be helped. After that, “Amir” contacted him by phone and spoke in a mixture of classical and colloquial Arabic close to the Palestinian dialect, and informed him that he would transfer him a sum of money to help him,” according to what “Al-Akhbar” reported.
The newspaper reported that during the investigations, “the detainee told investigators that ‘Amir’ called him two days later, and told him that he was Lebanese and not Palestinian, and that he would transfer $500 to him via ‘dead mail’ in the Hadath area. Five days after receiving the money, Amir contacted him again, and Muhammad understood from him ‘indirectly’ that he was affiliated with an Israeli entity, and asked him if he wanted to work for him in exchange for money. When the young man inquired about the nature of the work required, ‘Amir’ told him that he would assign him tasks of collecting information about people and places that he would specify for him.”
Al-Akhbar quoted Mohammed as saying in his testimony: “I realized at that moment that Amir was an officer in the Israeli Mossad,” noting that “despite that, (the detainee) agreed to carry out the tasks that Amir would assign him, but he first had to undergo a test to ensure that he understood the instructions, as Amir provided him with a map of a store, asking him to visit it and write a report specifying its contents, divisions, locations for installing surveillance cameras, points of concentration of guards, and distribution of employees. Indeed, he carried out what was asked of him, but Amir sent him a message that he had made a mistake in identifying the locations for installing surveillance cameras, and informed him that he had to visit the place more than once to be able to inspect it well without raising suspicion.”
According to Al-Akhbar, “Amir subjected the agent to several similar tests by assigning him to visit shops in Tyre and Nabatieh (cities in southern Lebanon) and their surroundings before informing him that he was satisfied with his performance. At that point, the agent told his operator that he needed to have his teeth treated. About a week later, “Amir” asked him to go to Jounieh, where he received $4,000 from someone. After that, “Amir” informed him that he would assign him a “difficult and complicated mission,” and that the reward would be rewarding. He asked him to buy a cell phone SIM card that he would not register in his name and an Android phone that would be equipped with a good camera and a long-lasting battery. He informed him that he would train him to use the phone in a disguised manner, and would provide him with the name of a southern region, where he would have to find a pretext to reside, either by finding a job or even by getting married. After training him (the agent) on using an offline map and how to use photos to reach a specific location, he provided him with coordinates for a location in the Rmeileh area where he was A sum of money is waiting for him.
The report stated: “The employer asked him if he knew any people affiliated with Hezbollah in the town of Al-Kharayeb, so Muhammad gave his employer six names. He was also asked to rejoin Hezbollah after he had frozen his membership due to his move from Beirut to the south.”
Later, “two calls took place between the agent and his operator, each lasting three hours, in the presence of a person who did not speak Arabic, whom ‘Amir’ identified as his supervisor. It turned out that he did not speak Arabic. In both calls, the conversation focused on how he could rejoin the party. Muhammad told the operator that he had undergone ‘soldiers’, ‘supporters’ and combat first aid courses, and that he had participated in fighting in Syria. He said that he had previously worked as a guard at the Great Prophet Hospital, before working as a nurse for several years at the same hospital. He spoke in detail about his work in the party and the names of those responsible for him when he participated in combat first aid in Syria, their military names, specifications, ages and the regions to which they belonged. When the operator asked him about his financial number in the party, he replied that he no longer remembered it,” according to the report.
The report continued, "The operator offered Muhammad to move to Israel, and asked him to ride his motorcycle to the border strip, so that Mossad would work to bring him into Israel, where he would stay for about two weeks to train him on an electronic device that he would bring with him upon his return. However, he refused for fear of being exposed, so Amir offered him to travel to meet him in another country. Before that happened, the Information Branch of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces was able to arrest Muhammad S. on February 20 in the town of Al-Kharayeb. During his investigation, after seizing his three mobile devices, his laptop, and two memory cards, he confessed that he had communicated with Mossad during the years 2023 and 2024 and worked for its benefit."
The detainee told investigators that he had provided his handlers with information about Hezbollah centers in the town of Al-Kharayeb, geographical coordinates of a center in a neighborhood known as Al-Matariyah, coordinates of the Imam Ali Mosque, pictures of the entrance to the mosque and its interior, which he did, and coordinates of the town’s Husseiniya and its surveillance cameras. He pointed out that his handlers asked him to move to the southern suburb to live and work as a nurse in one of its hospitals, and when he told them that he did not want to do so, he was asked to live in the town of Mays Al-Jabal and submit an application to work as a nurse in the town’s government hospital, as reported in the Al-Akhbar report.
The report stated that “after the outbreak of the war following the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’, the employer asked Muhammad for information about the military operations taking place in the vicinity of his residence and about the movements of Hezbollah elements in the area. He asked him if any of his acquaintances lived in the towns of Al-Bazouriya and Ma’arka, and asked him to reside there after securing coverage for his work, either through marriage or work.”
“As the war intensified, the operator provided him with the coordinates of two geographical locations of two points between which there was a large group of shops in the town of Al-Kharayeb, asking him for information about these shops and their owners. Indeed, the agent photographed the requested shops, including a car showroom, shops selling cell phones, perfumes, flowers, and a mini-market. He was also asked to monitor a shop selling cell phones in the town of Al-Sarafand, but he did not carry out the mission, insisting on receiving money beforehand. The total amount the agent received from his operators was $7,500, in addition to $4,000 that was supposed to arrive by dead mail in the Al-Rmaila area, but he did not find it,” according to the report.
Al-Akhbar explained that “the agent admitted that after the events of October 7, his operator repeatedly insisted that he move inside the occupied territories to undergo training on an electronic device to use in other missions. He also asked him to use a VPN while communicating with him on WhatsApp, and to activate airplane mode on his phone before reaching the target point where he had to carry out the mission.” It was striking in the conversations found on the agent’s phone that the Israeli operator was keen to know the most accurate details regarding the checkpoints in the area, such as: the location of the checkpoint, the responsible party (Internal Security, Lebanese Army, UNIFIL, Hezbollah), the approximate number of personnel, if you are stopped, what questions do the checkpoint personnel ask? Do the checkpoints stop cars if they are carrying families, women, or foreigners? Do the people of the area express suspicions towards strangers?”
Mohammed also told investigators that he “deleted the messages he exchanged with his employer on the email address that the latter had provided him, and through which he had assigned him tasks. He claimed that he did not know about Amir’s Israeli identity until after he received the second payment in Jounieh,” noting that he “continued to communicate because of his urgent need for money,” claiming that he “did not provide his employer with all the information he requested after the war broke out,” according to the report.
For his part, the first military investigative judge, Fadi Sawan, considered that “the defendant Muhammad’s action in terms of communicating with Israeli Mossad agents and providing them with security and military information in exchange for sums of money constitutes the felony stipulated in Article 278 of the Penal Code, the penalty for which is temporary hard labor ranging from 3 years to 15 years in prison as a maximum penalty.”