A young Hezbollah fighter in an orange grove near Naqoura in southern Lebanon, not far from the Blue Line, during a press tour organized by Hezbollah on April 20, 2017. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP Archives)
The youthful, sometimes beardless faces, armed with a Kalashnikov, falling on the ‘road to Jerusalem’. This kind of image has become common in the statements published by Hezbollah as its ‘martyrs’ have increased since Oct. 8, 2023, during clashes with the Israeli army. This week, it was Mehdi Ayoub Yacoub, a young man with even more childlike features, who had his macabre portrait circulating massively on social media. This led many internet users, some of whom openly identify as pro-Israeli, to claim that the party was sending underage fighters to the front line in South Lebanon. L'Orient-Le Jour looked into these claims and what is known about the youngest members of Hezbollah. Read more Five weeks in, an update on Israel’s ground offensive ‘Many recruits come from the scouts’"After wiping out the first class and older...
The youthful, sometimes beardless faces, armed with a Kalashnikov, falling on the ‘road to Jerusalem’. This kind of image has become common in the statements published by Hezbollah as its ‘martyrs’ have increased since Oct. 8, 2023, during clashes with the Israeli army. This week, it was Mehdi Ayoub Yacoub, a young man with even more childlike features, who had his macabre portrait circulating massively on social media. This led many internet users, some of whom openly identify as pro-Israeli, to claim that the party was sending underage fighters to the front line in South Lebanon. L'Orient-Le Jour looked into these claims and what is known about the youngest members of Hezbollah. Read more Five weeks in, an update on Israel’s ground offensive ‘Many recruits come from the scouts’"After wiping out the first class and...
