Lebanon releases two Palestinians after phone codes sparked detention

Lebanon released two men from Ramallah on Sunday after holding them for questioning over the origin of their mobile phone numbers.

Security forces detained the pair after finding that their devices carried Israeli country codes. An Uber driver and staff at the Lancaster Eden Bay hotel in Beirut reportedly notified officials after the men used those numbers to reserve a room. The independent outlet Beirut Time reported that rumors quickly circulated that the detainees were Israeli Mossad agents holding Turkish passports.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam addressed the situation in a statement issued by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. He described the capture claims as fake news and criticized what he called the moral bankruptcy surrounding the affair. His office stated that hostile parties had stoked the rumors in a cheap attempt to tarnish the Prime Minister's reputation and mislead public opinion.

Lebanese security forces questioned the two men and determined that both had entered the country legally. Officials noted that the men had visited Lebanon before. A separate rumor claimed that Salam had deported the pair rather than holding them, a claim that angered anti-Israel voices in the country.

Public concern about Israeli intelligence activity in Lebanon has intensified since September 2024. During that period, thousands of booby-trapped pagers exploded across Lebanon and Syria. The operation killed and wounded thousands of Hezbollah members, with the group acknowledging that most casualties were its own. Reports also indicated that a number of civilians suffered life-altering injuries in the blasts.