Report: US, Israel seek to infiltrate Lebanon's Jamaa Islamiya

U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies are seeking to infiltrate Lebanon’s Jamaa Islamiya group, especially its Fajr Forces, in connection with “the close relation between the group and the Hamas Movement, and its improving relation with Hezbollah,” informed sources said.

“The tight monitoring of the Jamaa Islamiya officials who are close to Hamas Movement’s military wing is aimed at reaching Hamas and Hezbollah military commanders through them,” the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

“The latest Israeli targeting in this regard took place on Sunday in the West Bekaa town of Swaira, when a drone targeted Jamaa Islamiya official Mohammad Assaf, who survived the attack while the Syrian driver of a Renault Rapid car was martyred,” the sources said.

According to reports, Assaf has close ties to Hamas’ military wing.

Al-Akhbar added that Western intelligence agencies have sought the help of allied Arab intelligence services that have networks in Lebanon to “collect information about the Jamaa’s cadres and its leaders who are close to resistance movements.”

Moreover, the daily quoted security sources as saying that “U.S. intelligence had communicated with a Jamaa member who hails from the Akkar region, offering him $5 million if he submitted information leading to (slain Hamas deputy chief) Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri, who was assassinated by Israel in early January” in a Beirut southern suburb.

Israeli intelligence agencies are meanwhile seeking information about “offices and homes belonging to Jamaa Islamiya and Hamas in Beirut, Tariq al-Jedideh, Central Bekaa towns, the Sidon region and the Palestinian camps,” al-Akhbar said.

The daily also revealed that around two months ago, Lebanese Army intelligence agents had arrested a cell that was suspected of preparing a boat for an illegal migration operation, before it turned out that the detainees were “preparing to transfer supplies by sea to the Gaza Strip and to carry out military operations against Israeli targets along the occupied Palestinian coast.”

“The group was plotting an attack on the Port of Haifa,” al-Akhbar added.

“Upon the arrest of the group, its members claimed that they belonged to Hezbollah, but the latter denied that they were affiliated with it, before it turned out that they belong to Jamaa Islamiya,” the daily said.

“They were kept in custody for around a month and a half and were eventually released after they pledged not to carry out any similar act without coordination with the resistance (Hezbollah) or the army,” al-Akhbar added.