A retired Lebanese security officer vanishes and his family thinks it was a covert Israeli abduction

A retired Lebanese security officer disappeared in December after arranging to meet a potential buyer for his land, in what officials believe was an Israeli intelligence operation seeking information about a long-missing Israeli airman.

Ahmed Shukr, a former captain with Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, vanished on December 17 after driving to the city of Zahle. Security footage captured him leaving his vehicle and entering another car. His family hasn’t heard from him since.

Lebanese authorities and Shukr’s family believe he was kidnapped and transported to Israel as part of efforts to uncover information about Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator who disappeared in Lebanon nearly four decades ago. The family contends Shukr was targeted because of his brother’s possible connections to Arad’s disappearance, though they maintain Shukr himself never belonged to any militant group and had no role in the Arad case.

Nearly three months after Shukr’s disappearance, Israeli forces conducted a deadly commando operation in the Lebanese town of Nabi Chit this weekend. According to local residents, the Israeli team began excavating the Shukr family cemetery before being confronted by Hezbollah fighters and armed civilians. The ensuing clashes and airstrikes left 41 people dead and dozens wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. No Israeli casualties were reported.

The Israeli military acknowledged the operation aimed to find evidence of Arad’s fate but said his remains weren’t recovered. When asked whether Israel had abducted Shukr, the military declined to comment.

This incident appears consistent with Israel’s long history of covert operations inside Lebanon to capture or eliminate individuals it claims are involved in anti-Israel activities. In November, Israel took responsibility for capturing a sea captain from northern Lebanon, claiming he was a senior Hezbollah operative. In other cases, such as the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger in April, Israel has maintained silence despite Lebanese officials claiming evidence of its involvement.

Israel has been searching for information about Arad since 1986, when he ejected from his fighter jet while conducting operations against suspected Palestinian militants near Sidon in southern Lebanon. A Shiite Muslim faction called the Believers’ Resistance captured Arad after he landed.

In 1994, Israeli commandos seized the faction’s leader, Mustafa Dirani, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and took him to Israel. Dirani, who was released a decade later in a prisoner exchange, provided conflicting accounts of Arad’s fate. In a 2000 newspaper interview, he claimed Arad disappeared in 1988 when his guards temporarily left him during a battle between Hezbollah and Israeli troops. In an Israeli court, however, Dirani reportedly stated that Iranian soldiers had taken Arad away.

Following negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group sent a report through mediators in 2008 suggesting Arad likely died while attempting to reach Israel after escaping captivity.

The circumstances surrounding Shukr’s disappearance point to a sophisticated operation. According to his wife, Salwa Hazimeh, months before his disappearance, Shukr had been contacted by a Lebanese citizen named Ali Morad through social media. Morad had rented an apartment from Shukr south of Beirut and later arranged the meeting in Zahle regarding the land sale.

“I was standing by him as he spoke and told him that we cannot see the plot of land later in the afternoon, but he insisted,” Hazimeh said. Shukr’s family says he requires constant medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart problems.

Beirut judicial officials report that four people have been charged in connection with the case, including Morad, a Lebanese-French citizen, a Syrian-Swedish citizen, and a Lebanese woman who rented a villa overlooking Zahle. Authorities say an SUV was purchased for $22,000 specifically for Shukr’s abduction, and the woman paid $42,000 for a year’s rent on the villa.

Morad’s lawyer claims her client was himself a victim who believed he was working for a foreign company and was unwittingly used in the kidnapping.

While Shukr’s wife and brother Abdul-Salam insist he has no information about Arad’s fate, another family member, speaking anonymously, revealed that Shukr’s late brother Hassan was a Hezbollah member who knew where Arad had been held. According to this source, Arad was kept in a locked room at the home of Hassan Shukr’s in-laws in Nabi Chit. Hassan was reportedly killed in battle in May 1988, and when fighters returned to Nabi Chit that day, they found Arad’s room empty.

“It looks like an extraordinary rendition,” said Adam Coogle of Human Rights Watch. “That is effectively kidnapping someone, then transporting them across borders without any due process.”

The case highlights the ongoing tensions in the region and Israel’s persistent efforts to resolve the decades-old mystery of Ron Arad’s disappearance, even as conflict between Israel and Hezbollah continues to escalate across Lebanon’s southern border.