Residents look at a car that was destroyed in a bombing, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan 14, 2018. IMAGE: Mohammed Zaatari/AP
On January 19, an unnamed source of the Intelligence Gathering Division in the Lebanese State Security told the Lebanese Mayadin TV that Israel was behind a car bomb attack that targeted Mohammed Hamdan, an official of the Palestinian Hamas Movement, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on January 14.
The source said that the Lebanese State Security was able to track the cell that conducted the assassination attempt thanks to several surveillance cameras planted around the house of Mohammed Hamdan. Later, security forces seized two cars that were used by the cell, according to the source. However, the source didn’t clarify if any member of the cell was arrested.
The Lebanese State Security’s investigation confirmed that the Israeli intelligence agency “Mossad” was behind the assassination attempt, according to the source.
This was not the first time the Lebanese State Security detected activities of the Israeli Mossad in the city of Sidon. On November 11, 2017 Lebanese security forces arrested a Lebanese operative of the Mossad who was planning to assassinate Lebanese public and political figures in Sidon.
The Lebanese authorities believe that the Israeli Mossad has been behind several assassinations of Lebanese and Palestinian figures since the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war on 1975.
