A senior Lebanese army officer allegedly collaborated with Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah to conceal the terror group’s killing of a UNIFIL soldier, the IDF revealed on Friday.
Suheil Gharb is the head of the military intelligence branch in southern Lebanon. He worked to disrupt the Lebanese Army's internal investigation of the incident and prevent the prosecution of Hezbollah members involved, the military said.
Gharb was found to have disclosed intelligence to Hezbollah in January, including the Lebanese Army's intentions to carry out raids that could harm Hezbollah's activities, according to the think tank Alma Research and Education Center.
The UNIFIL peacekeeper, Irish national Private Sean Rooney, was killed in Al-Aqbiya in December 2022 while traveling to Beirut in an armored UN vehicle. Three others were wounded in the incident, according to the BBC.
A military tribunal in July 2025, in Beirut, sentenced the main defendant, Mohammad Ayyad, to death in absentia, and six other Hezbollah terrorists were convicted for involvement in the murder.
Ayyad had been briefly detained in connection with the case and then released. He could not be reached for comment at the time, Reuters reported, citing a security source.
Rooney's mother sues UN
One man was sentenced to three months in prison, and four others were ordered to pay fines ranging from about $1,100 to $2,200, Reuters said, citing two judicial sources. A seventh man was acquitted.
The sentencing was carried out after Rooney’s mother, Natasha, won the right to sue the UN over her son’s death in June, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.
She claimed that rather than send support to rescue her son, UN officials ordered soldiers at a nearby base to stand down rather than rescue the group. The officials were said to have believed closer peacekeepers would respond to the group under fire.
Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin, at the time, commented, “Many will feel the sentences passed down on the other defendants are far too lenient. Peacekeeping is the most noble cause of all, and the role of the peacekeeper must at all times be honored and respected."
Gharb is one of several Lebanese Army officials who have been found to be collaborating with Hezbollah. Amid Maher Raad was reportedly dismissed from his post as head of the Dahieh Security Office in the army's intelligence directorate, according to Alma, for his involvement in a weapons and drugs smuggling network in Beirut, operated in collaboration with senior Hezbollah operatives.
Raad is related to senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad, who leads the political wing titled Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in the Lebanese parliament.
Efforts to disarm Lebanese non-state actors
This revelation comes following the state's agreements with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to crack down on weapons held by non-state actors in the country, including Hezbollah.
Lebanon committed to restricting arms to six specific state security forces as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel struck in November and backed by the United States. The cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
Lebanon said on Thursday it was launching the planned disarmament of Palestinian factions in refugee camps.
The initiative to disarm Palestinian factions is part of an agreement reached during a May 21 summit between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which affirmed Lebanon's sovereignty and the principle that only the state should bear arms.
Palestinian factions have long operated with relative autonomy in several of Lebanon's 12 refugee camps, which fall largely outside the jurisdiction of the Lebanese state. The latest handover represents the most serious bid in years to address weapons held inside the camps.
Danielle Greyman-Kennard and Reuters contributed to this report.