Abou Khalil had questioned Ayoub on whether the LF had handed over all their weapons to the Lebanese government, according to the Taif agreement that ended the Civil War and dictated all Lebanese political parties had to surrender their arms.

LF has a taken a strong position against the fact that Hezbollah did not hand over their weapons, which the party is currently using in its ongoing war with Israel which dramatically escalated on Sept. 23.

However, Abou Khalil noted that the LF "had used its weapons in the Tayyouneh clashes" on Oct. 14, 2021, prompting the question as to whether the LF too had held on to some of its weapons.

These clashes occurred between alleged supporters of the LF positioned in Ain al-Rummaneh and militants from Hezbollah and Amal, who had entered the neighborhood as they were heading to a demonstration near the Beirut Palace of Justice. The protest aimed to demand the removal of Judge Tarek Bitar, who is leading the investigation into the Beirut Port explosion.

The confrontations resulted in seven deaths — six Hezbollah militants and one civilian woman — as well as dozens of injuries and significant material damage.

Fifteen residents of Ain al-Rummaneh were arrested shortly after the clashes by order of the government commissioner to the military tribunal, Fadi Akiki. The commissioner also summoned Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, for questioning, but Geagea refused to appear, accusing the judge of serving Hezbollah's interests. The detainees were progressively released.

Abou Khalil described an understanding of the events — that with the implementation of the Taif Agreement the LF had returned some of its weapons to Israel, handed over other weapons to the Lebanese Army, and sold the rest — to which Ayoub said "correct," before getting carried away while commenting on the Tayyouneh clashes.

Hezbollah 'blocked justice'

Raising her voice, she claimed that having “blocked justice for the victims of the Aug. 4 explosion, [Hezbollah] has received its divine justice,” referring to the ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel, in which the latter has killed over 3,500 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1.4 million.

Her statement quickly gained traction on social media, with some supporters applauding her bold criticism of Hezbollah's policies and actions. However, detractors accused her of politicizing the suffering of civilians caught in the crossfire, arguing that her remarks lacked sensitivity during a time of national crisis.

Despite Ayoub’s name trending on X, the majority of the more than 2,000 tweets commenting on her statement, from both ends of the spectrum, seemed to be from bots, software applications that run automated tasks on the Internet with the intent to imitate human activity.

Among the reactions identified as coming from real social media users, Lara Kay wrote on X, “Full support to Ghada Ayoub, the truth hurts the cowards.”