BATROUN, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli naval forces have captured a senior Hezbollah official in northern Lebanon, an Israeli military official said Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said they were investigating whether Israel was behind the capture of a Lebanese ship captain who was taken away by a group of armed men who had landed on the coast near the northern town of Batroun on Friday.

“The operation has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated,” said the military officer, without providing the name of the detained person.

Two Lebanese military officers confirmed to the Associated Press that a naval force landed in Batroun, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of Beirut, and kidnapped a Lebanese citizen. Neither provided the man’s identity or said whether he was believed to have ties to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. They did not confirm whether the gunmen were an Israeli force.

Speaking to Lebanese channel Al-Jadeed TV, Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie refused to go into details or answer questions about whether it was thought to be an Israeli operation.

Three Lebanese judicial officials told the AP that the incident occurred at dawn Friday, adding that the captain may have ties to Hezbollah. Officials said an investigation is ongoing into whether the man is linked to Hezbollah or works for an Israeli spy agency and an Israeli force came to rescue him.

Both military and judicial officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to share details about the incident or the ongoing investigation.

Hezbollah issued a statement calling what happened a “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area.” The statement did not give details or confirm whether one of the Hezbollah members was captured by Israel.

Israel has in the past carried out Commando operations deep in Lebanon kidnap or kill Hezbollah and Palestinian officials.

Residents of the apartment building where the man was detained said the armed group presented itself as state security.

“We were terrified. They were breaking into the apartment next to ours,” Hussein Delbani told The Associated Press near where the man was captured. “I thought a state agency was conducting a security operation,” said Delbani, who was displaced from southern Lebanon a month ago when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah.

He said that he saw people on the coast from his balcony and they yelled at him again to come in.

Hamie told Al-Jadeed that the man was a captain of civilian ships. He graduated in 2022 and joined the Batroun Institute of Maritime Science and Technology at the end of September to take additional courses. Hamie said the man lived about 980 feet (300 meters) from the institute.

Hamie’s comments came shortly after two Lebanese journalists posted a video on social media showing what appeared to be about 20 armed men carrying away a man in front of a house, his face covered with his shirt.

Kandice Ardiel, spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, denied accusations by some local journalists that the peacekeepers helped the landing force in the operation. The UN mission, known as UNIFIL, has a maritime force that monitors the coast.

“Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk,” Ardiel said.

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Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Sally Abou Aljoud in Beirut and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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