Hezbollah behind 2023 killing of top Lebanese Christian politician, IDF says

The Israel Defense Forces revealed on Friday that Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists were responsible for the 2023 death of Elias al-Hasrouni, a senior member of Lebanon’s leading Christian political group.

According to the IDF, Unit 121—Hezbollah’s internal assassination and surveillance arm—abducted the 70-year-old politician on Aug. 1, 2023, poisoned and fatally beat him before staging it as a car accident.

The secretary-general of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, al-Hasrouni was known for his outspoken opposition to Hezbollah.

Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, described Unit 121 as responsible for targeting public figures who oppose Hezbollah’s influence inside Lebanon.

Its past operations included the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri—an attack for which unit commander Salim Ayyash was convicted by the U.N.'s Special Tribunal for Lebanon in 2020, he said.

“Despite the heavy blow Hezbollah suffered during the war, it is still trying to sow chaos in Lebanon and rebuild its strength through Unit 121 and other means,” Adraee wrote in his Arabic statement Friday.

“The Lebanese people, who long for stability and prosperity,” he wrote, “fully understand the need to rid themselves of this fractured Iranian arm that has dragged the country into futile wars, spies on the population, and assassinates its opponents.”