Nawaf Salam labels Mossad capture story fake after phone number alert

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam declared rumors of a Mossad spy capture in Lebanon to be fake news on Sunday. The government acted to soothe public concern after security forces detained two Palestinian men from Ramallah. Officials confirmed the men entered the country legally and had visited before.

The detention stemmed from a hotel reservation in Beirut. Staff at the Lancaster Eden Bay hotel noticed the two men used phone numbers with Israeli country codes. An Uber driver and hotel employees alerted authorities, triggering an investigation. The men were held and questioned, then released.

Salam’s office accused hostile parties of spreading the story to mislead public opinion. A statement from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers said the claims aimed to tarnish the Prime Minister’s reputation. The government described the surrounding hype as a display of moral bankruptcy.

Beirut Time reported the initial rumors claimed the two men were Mossad agents holding Turkish passports. The story gained traction quickly after the hotel alert. A separate rumor emerged the following day that Salam had deported the men rather than holding them. That claim angered anti-Israel groups within Lebanon.

Tension over Israeli intelligence activity in the region has grown since September 2024. Thousands of booby-trapped pagers exploded across Lebanon and Syria during that operation. Hezbollah stated that most casualties were members of the Iran-backed group, though civilians also suffered life-altering injuries.