An Israeli Arab in Lebanon attempted to recruit Israeli citizens to Hezbollah in order to carry out terrorist activities, the Shin Bet revealed on Tuesday.

The Shin Bet discovered that Beirut Hamoud, an Israeli citizen living in Lebanon with her Lebanese husband, Bilal Bizari, has been working for Hezbollah and recruiting Israeli citizens as Hezbollah operatives.

Hamoud and Bizari, both journalists for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper, allegedly tried to recruit two female Israeli Arabs from Hamoud’s hometown of Majd al-Krum, a northern Arab town in the Galil.

Hamoud met with the two Israeli-Arab women in Turkey in December. In May the women were arrested by Israeli security services and interrogated by the Shin Bet, on suspicion of contact with Hezbollah operatives.

Hamoud herself was interrogated by Israeli security forces in 2013 on suspicion of contacting Hezbollah activists. She later moved to Lebanon and married Bizari.

“During the investigation, the contact between the two [Arab Israeli women] and Hamoud was verified and information about the meeting in Turkey was confirmed as well as how Hezbollah operated through Hamoud and her husband to recruit additional Israelis for Hezbollah operations,” a Shin Bet statement said.

Following their interrogation, the two Majd al-Krum women were released on restrictive conditions.

The Shin Bet also stated that it contacted Bizari in Lebanon, warning him to halt all atttempts to recruit Israeli citizens for Hezbollah.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)