Lebanon Accuses Mossad of Killing Hezbollah-Linked Financier

By Yoni Weiss

The Lebanese interior minister and two other top officials reported on Monday that the Mossad was behind the assassination of Mohammed Surour, who was involved in transferring funds from Iran to Hamas. Surour was found deceased in a villa near Beirut, with multiple gunshot wounds. During a media interview, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi indicated that intelligence services likely executed the killing, and specifically named the Mossad when pressed. “The finger is pointed at Mossad, though the investigation is ongoing,” he stated.

A Lebanese security source disclosed that Surour was employed by Hezbollah’s financial institutions. In August 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned him and several others for their roles in funneling money from Iran and supporting Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

A high-ranking Lebanese judicial official told AFP that all signs suggest the Mossad’s involvement in the assassination, though the probe is still preliminary. Another security source informed AFP that the Mossad probably utilized agents from Lebanon and Syria to attract Surour to the Beit Meri villa where he was ultimately killed. The assassins reportedly used silenced weapons and meticulously avoided leaving fingerprints at the scene.

Surour had been unaccounted for six days before his body was discovered, as per his family. Following the discovery, it was reported that a sum of money was found near his body, left untouched by the killers. Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar also mentioned that Israel had previously interrogated detainees from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority to gather intelligence about Surour’s financial activities, noting that his shop was a channel for money transfers to Yehudah, Shomron, and Gaza. The report added that the guns used in Surour’s assassination were found in the kitchen of the house, submerged in water and cleaning agents to erase any fingerprints.