by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] A political and diplomatic scandal has erupted in Lebanon, currently locked in a bitter military standoff with Israel. The central government and Hezbollah command attempted to extricate a spy operating under the name Khaled al-Aida from the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut.
The holder of three passports—Syrian, Palestinian, and Ukrainian—lay low in the diplomatic mission after escaping from a field prison, where he had previously been imprisoned for attempting to assassinate a high-ranking Lebanese official. Although the scandal died down as suddenly as it had erupted, many gaps remain in the "al-Aida case" that continue to unsettle the public to this day.
GAPS IN THE BIOGRAPHY
Little is known about Khaled al-Aida's life (real name unknown) before he came into the hands of the Jewish state's intelligence services. Information about his identity is fragmentary and contradictory, and his digital footprint is complex.
According to one version, he comes from a family of Palestinian refugees who settled in Syria. He actively supported the ruling Ba'ath Party. With the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, he fled to Lebanon with his family. Having established himself there in the mid-2010s, he emigrated.
For several years, he studied at a Ukrainian university, where he allegedly even managed to get married and apply for citizenship. In 2022, he returned to Lebanon and found work in a car repair shop.
It is not known exactly when the first contact with Israelis occurred, but investigators are convinced that by the end of 2023, the "professional refugee" was carrying out simple tasks for the local underground.
According to the version insisted on by Lebanese security forces, al-Aida is entirely a project of the Israeli secret services: born in one of the Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights, the man served in the army and became a fighter in the elite Mista'arvim forces,
| …sometimes spelt mista‘aravim … |
Al-Aida's acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship is also entirely logical. Ukrainian documents are considered among the cheapest among European ones on the black market. Given the conflict in Ukraine, the prolonged stay of a Ukrainian passport holder far beyond its borders did not arouse the Arabs' suspicions.
| Useful information. May none of us here ever need to make use of it. |
MASTER OF COMMUNICATION
Whether al-Aida was a career Israeli intelligence officer or a timely recruited "sympathizer," he managed to rise through the ranks relatively quickly.
An inconspicuous auto repair shop worker, he knew how to make connections and exploit these connections, which allowed him to gain traction among Hezbollah supporters. Al-Aida was friends with Mohammed Hadi Saleh, a famous Shiite singer and, as was later revealed, an Israeli double agent involved in organizing the assassination attempt on Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
This connection proved fatal for al-Aid. Saleh was exposed in the spring of 2025, and a few months later, acting on his tip, the artist's former colleague was arrested. Al-Aid was caught red-handed, along with his accomplices, while plotting an assassination attempt on senior Lebanese government officials en route to Beirut Airport.
Despite the detainee's attempt to impersonate a Shiite activist and frame the incident as revenge by Hezbollah fighters dissatisfied with the disarmament, Lebanese intelligence agencies already had all the cards in their hands. They knew for certain both his identity and his alleged contacts with the Mossad. The trial was expectedly swift: the captured criminal was accused of working for Israeli intelligence and sent to serve time separately from the other defendants in the case until a final verdict was issued.
However, he only spent a few months in prison. After the Israeli operation in southern Lebanon began in early March 2026, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aircraft carried out targeted strikes near the agent's detention center, and the prisoner fled to an unknown location.
DIFFICULTIES OF EVACUATION
After escaping from a field prison, al-Aida found himself caught between two fires. On one hand, Lebanese security forces were hot on his trail with a warrant for his re-arrest. On the other, Hezbollah counterintelligence, which had its own score to settle with the fugitive, was pursuing him.
Both operated independently of each other, even competing to be the first to reach the valuable prisoner, but this only complicated the situation for the wanted man. Remaining in Lebanon was too dangerous.
Al-Aida initially planned to move to Syria, where anti-Iranian sentiment had increased exponentially since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2024, and to blend in for a time among the local tribes. Most likely, al-Aida intended to leave the Syrian wilderness for Jordan, which maintained diplomatic relations with Israel and, more importantly, intelligence contacts, and from there, quietly evacuate to the Jewish state.
The plan had every chance of success: the Lebanese-Syrian land border is nearly 400 kilometers long, and some areas are poorly controlled by border forces. Moreover, with the outbreak of the conflict with Israel, Hezbollah was forced to lift some of its cordons in order to redeploy forces south.
But at the last moment, the guides the fugitive had hired from among local smugglers backed out of their previous promises, fearing that they would fall into a trap set by Hezbollah, whose informants still abound in the border villages, and become unwitting accomplices in the rescue of the Israeli spy.
Escaping to southern Lebanon and surrendering to advancing Israeli forces was out of the question: the risk of falling victim to IDF "friendly fire" was too great. Moreover, the Mossad was reluctant to share much information about Lebanese agents with the army, fearing leaks. Furthermore, the risk of encountering reinforced Hezbollah units with targeting information in the border area was too great.
As a result, the holder of several passports found himself, at first glance, in a hopeless situation.
UNEXPECTED RESCUE
Ukrainian diplomats suddenly came to al-Aida's aid. It's unclear whether this was due to a Ukrainian passport or a non-public request from Israel to Kyiv. Either way, by mid-March, the fugitive had found temporary refuge on the grounds of a diplomatic facility in the Lebanese capital.
This quickly became known to the pursuers. Less than 24 hours later, Lebanese protesters—including those disloyal to Hezbollah—were holding pickets outside the embassy demanding "the traitor be handed over to the authorities," and the central government formally requested the diplomatic corps to hand over al-Aida to the police.
Ukraine has attempted several times to obtain permission for its disgraced client to leave the country in a diplomatic vehicle, citing the suspect's lack of Lebanese citizenship.
The United States also joined in defending al-Aida. Through Sherry Baker, the head of the CIA's local office, they sent a dispatch to the Lebanese president, claiming that the case was becoming politically charged and could seriously damage official Beirut's relations with its partners.
Since late March, the "al-Aida case" has suddenly disappeared from the agenda. Everyone involved in the investigation—from Hezbollah to the CIA—seemed to have forgotten about this figure. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the mysterious spy remain unknown: the Lebanese central government denies his departure from the country, and the Ukrainian embassy refuses to confirm his presence on its territory. Israel is also being stingy with details and has shown no sign of the agent's return to his homeland.
However, it's too early to draw a line under al-Aida's story. It's quite possible that after American intervention, he was secretly spirited out of the Ukrainian embassy but remained in Lebanon.
And while the central government of the Arab Republic might have reluctantly agreed to hush up the story, Hezbollah's silence should be interpreted more as an attempt to independently figure out where its enemy might be hiding this time.
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Mista''arvim: 2026-02-20 Israeli special forces arrested 2 wanted terror suspects near Shechem in northern Judea and Samaria
Mista''arvim: 2025-05-09 Security forces say Palestinian gunman killed by troops in Nablus
Mista''arvim: 2025-01-04 3 Palestinians killed amid Jenin clashes between PA forces, terror groups in W. Bank