A Syrian national attempting to smuggle multiple rocket shells into Lebanon was detained on the Lebanese-Syrian border in Aaiha, a small village in the Rashaya District of the Beqaa Governorate in Lebanon, the Lebanese Army announced on Wednesday.
The rockets were seized, and an investigation is underway, while the detainee remains under the supervision of “the competent judiciary,” the Lebanese military stated.
The approximately 330-kilometer border with Syria has been used by Hezbollah, as well as other terrorist groups and criminal gangs, to smuggle supplies and people in and out of Lebanon.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Lebanon has reinforced the border in an effort to combat smuggling.
It remains unconfirmed whether Hezbollah was the intended recipient of the rockets.
Non-state actors banned from holding arms in Lebanon
Though Hezbollah has the ability to produce some weapons domestically, the incident comes days after reports emerged of divisions within Israel’s defense establishment over the extent to which Iran continues to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah through Syria.
In a separate operation announced by the Lebanese Army at the same time, another unit arrested 10 Syrians in the town of Shaath, Baalbek, over their alleged involvement in a dispute at a camp in the area and confiscated their weapons.
Beirut banned non-state actors from holding arms in March, after Hezbollah restarted the war against Israel in response to the killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Despite the law, Beirut has come under heavy criticism for its reluctance to seize Hezbollah’s weapons and for the light sentences handed to the few members who appear before the courts.