Despite the hydroid fauna of the Mediterranean Sea being considered one of the best known in the world, the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea remains nearly unexplored. This paper reports on 38 species collected along the Levant Sea coast (mainly Lebanon), of which three are new records for the Mediterranean and nine for the Levant Sea. Six alien species, i.e. Eudendrium carneum, Sertularia marginata, Sertularia techocarpa, Macrorhynchia philippina, Diphasia digitalis and Dynamena quadridentata, are described in detail and illustrated on the basis of Levant Sea material. The last four species are considered as immigrants from the Red Sea. The synonymy of Sertularia stechowi, described from Japan, with S. techocarpa is established. Taken as a whole, the collection comprised a majority of circum-(sub)tropical species, and a reduced proportion of Atlantic–Mediterranean elements and Mediterranean endemics. The ecology (seasonality, depth distribution and habitat preference) of the indigenous species resulted similar to what is known for the more studied western Mediterranean, with some exceptions. Adding the present species inventory to the scanty published information, the total of hydroid species known from the Levant Sea rises to 70, indicating the need for future investigation in this sector of the Mediterranean Sea.

Among the biota collected during two surveys of deep-water dumping sites off the Israeli coast, four species of interest were identified: the bobtail squid, Neorossia caroli caroli, the deep-sea asteroid, Brisingella coronata, and the tonguesole, Symphurus ligulatus, are new for the Levant Sea, while the four-horned octopus, Pteroctopus tetracirrhus, is a new record for the Israeli coast. The growing list of bathybenthic species, resulting from expanding research efforts, challenges the conventional view of the Levant deep-sea biodiversity.