Hezbollah says the vehicle with 500 kg of explosives at Dahr al-Baidar is “ours” and “does not recognise” the government ban

Hezbollah admitted on Thursday, October 15, that it owns the vehicle loaded with explosives that Lebanese authorities stopped at the Dahr al-Baidar checkpoint, on the Beirut–Bekaa road. At a press conference in Parliament, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said the cargo consisted of “means used by the resistance to confront the Israeli occupation of our land in the South”.

He called for the release of the two detainees and the return of “the vehicle and whatever it contains”. According to him, from the moment the vehicle was stopped Hezbollah contacted the security authorities and the judiciary and told them that the vehicle and its cargo belong to it. Its weapons, he added, including explosive devices, are directed “exclusively” against Israel. The campaign that followed the seizure “has no other function than to serve the enemy”, he said, and the resistance’s legitimacy “is not taken from such an authority that abandoned sovereignty”.

“Void” March 2 decision

On the government’s March 2 decision banning Hezbollah’s military and operational activity, Fadlallah said it is “contrary to the Constitution, the National Pact and the Charter of Human Rights” and that Hezbollah “does not recognise its results on the ground”. He described linking the case to political assassinations as a “campaign of division” and warned the government not to “overplay it”.

The seizure

According to Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar, Internal Security Forces officers at the permanent checkpoint became suspicious of a grey Dodge Caravan because it was overloaded. After a search they found explosives, arrested the driver and his passenger and handed them to the Military Police, he said on Tuesday. “We will not rest as security services, army and judiciary unless we secure a high level of security,” he added.

The vehicle held about 250 kg of TNT-type explosive and 250 kg of C4, according to The National. The case is pending before the military court.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promised there would be no leniency and that the government “will not tolerate anyone who dares to play with the country’s security and stability”. He had earlier written on X that he understood the concern of the Lebanese, “especially because C4 has been used in several of the notorious political assassinations of Lebanon’s modern history”.

The confrontation comes as Israeli operations in the South continue, with the Israeli defence minister sending a message to Hezbollah from Lebanon, as we reported in Katz from Lebanon, and while the EU was preparing a training mission for the Lebanese armed forces.