Hezbollah demands Lebanon return seized explosives

Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic's most important proxy group in the region, has asked Lebanese security forces to return to the group explosives seized about two weeks ago from a truck travelling from the Bekaa Valley to Beirut. The request, made public on Friday, 16 October 2026, is Hezbollah's least precedented open confrontation with a government that has committed to disarming it.

Lebanon's internal security forces stopped the truck at the Dahr al-Baidar checkpoint on the Beirut–Bekaa highway and arrested its two occupants. Lebanese judicial officials put the size of the cargo at 780 kilograms, of which 250 kilograms was TNT and 250 kilograms was the plastic explosive C-4; some reports put the quantity Hezbollah is demanding at more than 450 kilograms. According to judicial officials, the two detainees said they were only couriers, tasked with carrying the cargo from Baalbek to Beirut and handing it to a man using the alias "Zulfiqar" in southern Beirut.

The positions of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government

Hassan Fadlallah, Hezbollah's member of Lebanon's parliament, has said the group intended to use the materials in confronting Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, and has accused the government of preventing this and of making the seizure public. Earlier, on Monday, 12 October, Ibrahim Moussawi, another Hezbollah lawmaker, had said that if the vehicle belonged to "the resistance", the group had nothing to be ashamed of. According to Lebanese security sources, the seized materials will not be returned despite follow-up by Hezbollah officials.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the incident a "criminal operation" and promised that everyone involved would be prosecuted. According to Paul Morcos, Lebanon's information minister, the prime minister reminded colleagues that C-4 explosive has been used in several political assassinations in Lebanon's modern history.

The US reaction

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a conversation on Thursday, 15 October with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, called for holding accountable everyone who ordered the transfer of this cargo, paid for it or made it possible. He stressed that returning the explosives to Hezbollah must not be considered under any circumstances.

Background: Hezbollah under financial pressure

This confrontation comes as Hezbollah is under unprecedented financial and political pressure. DIAR previously reported that Hezbollah has announced a cash-payment plan for displaced people, with reports pointing to $200 million of Islamic Republic money behind it, and that US Central Command has said proxy groups are returning money to the IRGC because of a shortage of liquidity.

Hezbollah openly acknowledged that the explosives cargo seized in Lebanon belongs to it and demanded its return.