Lebanon deports detained US-Israeli national: officials

“Joshua Samuel Tartakovsky, a journalist with Israeli, US and British passports, was detained on October 5 and deported the following day,” a judicial official said. (Social media)

• A security official said Hezbollah members detained Tartakovsky and handed him over to the military intelligence, but said he was not a journalist

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities detained a US-Israeli national in Beirut last week and later deported him, Lebanese security and judicial officials said on Thursday.
“Joshua Samuel Tartakovsky, a journalist with Israeli, US and British passports, was detained on October 5 and deported the following day,” a judicial official said, requesting to remain anonymous.
Israel intensified air strikes in Lebanon over two weeks ago, targeting the Hezbollah armed group.
Lebanese law prohibits any contact with Israel, punishable by imprisonment, and Lebanese citizens are barred from traveling to its southern neighbor.
A security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah members detained Tartakovsky and handed him over to the military intelligence, but said he was not a journalist.
He had gone to the southern suburbs, where Israel has pounded what they say are Hezbollah sites in recent weeks, presenting himself as a “supporter of Gaza and Hezbollah,” the security source said.
He claimed he wanted to tell Hezbollah about “Israeli army tactics,” the source said.
A spokeswoman at the US embassy told AFP: “We are aware of the arrest and due to privacy reasons have no further information to provide.”
The escalation of Israeli strikes in Lebanon since September 23 has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
Before that, Hezbollah had traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.