By Nohad Topalian | 2024-08-07

BEIRUT -- Lebanese Shia who have lost sons in battle after Hizbullah recruited them to fight without their families' knowledge or consent are deeply angry at the Iran-backed party but afraid to speak out against it, sources said.

Some families are so angry that they are refusing to allow Hizbullah to hold funerals for their sons until it apologizes formally to them for its actions.

Since its inception, "Hizbullah has been exploiting everything to beef up its ranks and equipment, even at the expense of its base," Southerners for Freedom coordinator and Hizbullah opponent Hussein Ataya told Al-Fassel.

The party has been taking advantage of the hardships the Shia community is facing from Lebanon's political and economic crisis to lure young men into its ranks, he said.

Hizbullah has been recruiting Lebanese youth even "without the consent of their families and guardians, in violation of the teachings and law of Islam," he said.

"With its war, Hizbullah has caused the death of boys under the age of 18 in its battles in the south, some of whom took part without the knowledge of their families," Ataya said.

Some families found out only after their sons' bodies were returned to them, he added.

But they were unable to publicly express their anger "because Hizbullah defames them and threatens to stop providing them with aid," he said.

The terrorist group also accuses them of being foreign agents and kuffar (infidels) if they dare speak out.

Military training camps

Hizbullah is enticing boys from displaced families in the south to join its Mahdi Scouts -- which offer military training camps disguised as scouting and educational camps -- with promises of providing aid to their families, Ataya said.

Many end up in combat.

The group pays for the "scout camps" and the handouts to families with its "huge financial resources acquired from Iran and the Captagon trade," he said.

Hizbullah's clashes in the south are becoming increasingly "intense, bloody, destructive and deadly," Lebanese Center for Research and Consulting director Hassan Qutb told Al-Fassel.

Hizbullah has so far lost about 400 elements in the cross-border fighting, including commanders, he said, noting that most of those dead hail from the south and were teenagers.

"Southerners and Hizbullah's base are paying a bloody price with their sons, property and livelihood for Iranian and regional calculations, which is something that they no longer accept," he said.