(CNN)- Israeli forces say they have captured a senior Hezbollah militant in a special forces raid in northern Lebanon.
An Israeli military official told CNN that members of the elite Shayetet 13 force captured the suspected Hezbollah operative after landing on the coast of Batroun, a city in northern Lebanon, and then took him back to Israeli territory.
The official said the capture operation is being investigated by Unit 504, an intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Israel’s Shayetet 13, which operates from the Atlit naval base on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast, is sometimes compared to the United States Marines. Israeli forces previously described Shayetet 13’s role to CNN as “strategic sabotage activities across enemy lines, including damaging vital wartime structures and enemy ports.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported on Saturday that witnesses had seen “an unidentified military force carrying out a landing operation on Batroun Beach” at dawn the previous day.
“The troops moved with all their weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, where they abducted civilian Imad Amhaz and took him to the beach, (then) they took him out to the open sea in motor boats,” the NNA reported. Went away.”
The Lebanese government said its security services were investigating “an incident that occurred in the Batroun area” early on Friday.
Hezbollah issued a statement referring to an incident of “Zionist aggression in the Batroun area”, but did not provide further details. CNN has contacted Hezbollah for comment.
An Israeli military official told CNN that the country’s forces “will continue to take action where necessary to defend the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The raid comes just a month after Hezbollah said it had attacked the naval base of an elite Israeli naval commando unit on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast, believed to be a reference to Shayetet 13.
Hezbollah claims that the attack took place on 23 September. Asked for comment at the time, the IDF said “no injuries were reported” but did not confirm that the naval base had been attacked.