Lebanon Probe Points to Israel's Abduction of Officer Tied to Arad Case

Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who went missing in southern Lebanon in 1986. (Israeli Air Force)

A senior Lebanese judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that investigations into the disappearance of a retired General Security officer a week ago are increasingly pointing to an Israeli abduction, following what the source described as a covert intelligence entrapment operation tied to suspicions over the decades-old mystery of missing Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who vanished in southern Lebanon in 1986.

The source said the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces has intensified its inquiries since the disappearance of retired Captain Ahmed Shukr was reported about a week ago in the eastern Bekaa region.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that investigators traced surveillance camera footage and analyzed communications data, uncovering initial leads suggesting that Shukr was subjected to a carefully planned entrapment operation that began in his hometown of Nabi Sheet in the northern Bekaa, before he vanished near the city of Zahle, where security efforts are now focused on determining his fate.

Intelligence entrapment

As conflicting accounts have emerged over the reasons and circumstances behind Shukr’s disappearance, the theory that Israel is behind his abduction has gained ground over other scenarios, based on preliminary findings from the ongoing investigation.

What strengthens the security and intelligence angle is suspicion surrounding non-Lebanese individuals linked to the incident.

The judicial source said information obtained from initial inquiries and surveillance indicates that the entrapment operation was carried out by two Swedish nationals, one of Lebanese origin, who arrived in Lebanon just two days before the disappearance via Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.

One of them left the country through the airport on the same day Shukr went missing, raising serious questions about his potential role in the operation.

As for the second individual, who is also of Lebanese origin, the source said he is believed to have taken part in the entrapment and remains inside Lebanon. Records from General Security at the airport and land and sea crossings show that he has not left the country, unless he did so illegally.

The source did not rule out the involvement of other individuals inside Lebanon in monitoring Shukr and preparing the conditions for his abduction.

Assassination or abduction?

Several scenarios are being examined regarding the fate of the retired officer, ranging from the possibility that he was killed, similar to what was attributed to the Israeli Mossad in the killing of currency exchanger Mohammad Srour, who was linked to Hezbollah, last year, to a more dangerous but increasingly plausible hypothesis that he was transferred out of Lebanon to Israel.

In this context, the judicial source overseeing the preliminary investigation said the Information Branch has not yet found any physical or technical evidence indicating that Shukr remains on Lebanese territory.

This strengthens the theory that he was drugged and abducted to Israel, either by air in a complex operation, or by sea using a boat that departed from the Lebanese coast, as occurred in the abduction of maritime captain Imad Amhaz from the beach of the northern city of Batroun on November 2 last year.

Links to the Ron Arad file

The case goes beyond an individual disappearance, intersecting with a highly sensitive security file between Lebanon and Israel.

Sources close to Shukr’s family told Asharq Al-Awsat that the missing officer is the brother of Hassan Shukr, who was killed along with eight others in the Battle of Maydoun in the western Bekaa on May 22, 1988, which involved fighters from the “Islamic Resistance”, other armed groups and Israeli occupation forces.

Information suggests that Hassan Shukr was a fighter within a group led by Mustafa Dirani, who at the time was affiliated with the Amal Movement before later joining Hezbollah.

That group is believed to have taken part in the capture of Arad after his aircraft was shot down over southern Lebanon on October 16, 1986. The armed group reportedly transferred Arad to the home of a relative of the Shukr family in Nabi Sheet before moving him to an unknown location, after which he disappeared entirely.

Ahmed Shukr also belongs to the family of Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah’s second in command, who was assassinated in an Israeli air strike on a building in the Haret Hreik area of Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 30, 2024.

The suspected operation revives a long record of Israeli operations targeting individuals directly or indirectly linked to the Arad case, through assassinations, abductions or recruitment attempts.

In light of this, the judicial source voiced concern that Ahmed Shukr’s disappearance may represent another chapter in what he described as Israel’s destabilizing interference in Lebanon.