Hezbollah Presents: Journalist by Day, Terror Recruiter by Night

Jerusalem, 1 July, 2020 (TPS) -- Israel’s security forces were successful in exposing a network of Arabs with Israeli citizenship who worked for the Hezbollah terror organization and attempted to recruit assets within Israel.

The investigation of two Israeli citizens from Majd al-Krum, who were detained for questioning by the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) on June 2 has revealed how Hezbollah in Lebanon works to recruit Israeli citizens to work for it in Israel.

The investigation revealed that Beirut Hamoud, an Israeli citizen from Majd al-Krum in the north who currently resides in Lebanon together with her husband Bilal Biazari, works for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Beirut works for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is linked to Hezbollah. In addition to Beirut’s work as a journalist, the couple work for Hezbollah as locators and recruiters of Israeli citizens for Hezbollah terrorist activities.

Beirut had previously been under investigation in 2013 on suspicion of having been in contact with Hezbollah operatives she met at conferences in Morocco in 2008 and in Tunisia in 2012.

In 2013, Beirut left Israel and moved to Lebanon where she married Biazari.

Following Beirut’s links to the two Israeli Arabs arrested in June and following her meeting with one of them in Turkey in December 2019, the two suspects were investigated by the ISA on suspicion that Beirut and her husband attempted to recruit them into Hezbollah during the visit.

During the investigation, the link between the two unnamed suspects and Beirut was verified.

Information about the meeting in Turkey and the manner in which Hezbollah operates through Beirut and her husband to recruit additional Israelis for Hezbollah terrorist activities was also exposed.

The suspects were released under restrictive conditions after the conclusion of their operation.

As part of its counterterrorism operations, an ISA agent called Biazari in Lebanon, warned him that the ISA was aware of his role as a Hezbollah recruiter despite the journalist cover he and his wife present and said that they must stop their efforts to recruit Israeli citizens.

“The ISA will continue to take determined action to monitor and counter any Hezbollah terrorist activity or espionage,” it stated Tuesday.

The ISA emphasized “the utmost gravity with which it views the exploitation of Israeli citizenship in order to abet terrorism and espionage.”