The whereabouts of the kidnapped leader of the West Beirut Jewish community Selim Jammous, remained unknown today, 24 hours after three masked gunmen removed him from his car as he drove near the Beirut synagogue in the Jewish quarter of Wadi Abu Jemil.
According to reports from Beirut, Jammous, chairman of the committee representing the 100-member Jewish community, had been under surveillance. Some hours before he was kidnapped, gunmen called at his home seeking his whereabouts. Apparently they waited until he returned and then abducted him. Neither his wife nor Beirut police could offer any explanation for the kidnapping, nor who was responsible. No group, so far, has claimed responsibility.
Last month, another prominent Lebanese Jew, Raul Sobhi Mizrachi, was kidnapped. His body was later found on the seashore south of Beirut. A group calling itself the “National Resistance Arm – The Nation’s Liberation Faction” said it had killed Mizrachi “because he was an Israeli agent.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
