Regarded as the spiritual leader and soldier of the '
Islamic Amal' (no relation with the similarly named secular
Amal movement, except that both catered to the
Lebanese Shia community) in the south of
Tyre, close to
Hezbollah and related to the operations of capturing Western hostages since 1982. Danny Abdalla, a Lebanese criminal living in
Denmark, who also admitted to having killed militant
Ragheb Harb on behalf of the Israelis, claimed to have participated in the capture. As a result,
Hezbollah put Abdalla on their death list, and he was wanted in Lebanon as of 2012. Obeid was a long time held prisoner in Israel. In exchange of his release, Israel required information on the fate of the navigator
Ron Arad (crashed in southern Lebanon in October 1986) at first, and later on for the bodies of the three soldiers abducted by Hezbollah in October 2000 at the Israeli-Lebanese border and for
Elhanan Tannenbaum, who had been kidnapped at the same time in
Dubai. He was released in January 2004 with 20 other Lebanese prisoners, 400
Palestinian prisoners, and a number of other nationals, as part of a deal to get the abducted soldiers and civilians back. He thanked Hezbollah and
Iranian leaders for acting for his release. ==See also==