Lebanon Thwarts ISIS Plot through Militant-Turned-Informant

Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. (Reuters)
Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Thwarts ISIS Plot through Militant-Turned-Informant

Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. (Reuters)
Lebanese Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. (Reuters)

Lebanon announced on Friday that it had thwarted an ISIS terrorist plot, through a detained member of the terrorist group, Abou Jaafar al-Iraqi, who was used as an informant.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said during a press conference that the high-level operation was the product of months of efforts carried out not only by Lebanese intelligence, but also agencies in the Arab world.

The Iraqi man was sent by ISIS to Lebanon to form a new cell to carry out attacks, he added.

The intelligence bureau of Lebanon’s Internal Security Force said in a statement at the news conference that security services had tracked Iraqi’s activities in Iraq and after he arrived in Lebanon in June.

When it became clear he was planning to return to Iraq, he was arrested and turned into an informant.

For five months he carried on communicating with ISIS abroad and working on the cell - all the while feeding information back to Lebanese security forces.

ISIS asked him “to exert maximum effort to carry out terror attacks in Lebanon especially during the holiday season and end of year celebrations”, the information division said.

The operation was ended after intelligence showed ISIS command abroad had become suspicious of Iraqi and the lack of attacks, it said.

A number of arrests were made as a result of the operation, Mashnouq said.



Israel Kills 40 Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israel Kills 40 Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Wednesday.

Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the dead included 17 women and 10 children. It said one strike killed 10 people from the same family, including three children.

The Israeli military did not comment on specific strikes, but said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the past day, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and tunnels.

The war started after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been released in earlier ceasefires.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.