A flag depicting late former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah flutters as Shi'ite mourners mark Ashura, the holiest day on the Shi'ite Muslim calendar, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, June 26, 2026. (Credit: Khalil Ashawi)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah has issued a statement denying "any link" to the publication of a list of nearly 200 figures accused of "collaboration" with Israel, which had been signed by "activists close to Hezbollah" and was being circulated on social media.
Many of the individuals named on the list — including political figures, intellectuals, members of civil society and activists, all opponents of Hezbollah’s influence and supporters of its disarmament — are among the signatories of the “Call to Save Lebanon,” a national initiative launched three weeks ago.
"Hezbollah’s media relations office wishes to stress that the party has no connection with this list, neither near nor far. It calls for responsibility in the face of such allegations, whose authors seek to sow confusion and discord," Hezbollah wrote on its Telegram account, asserting that it has "never arrogated to itself the right to classify individuals, nor to accuse them of a lack of national loyalty or to label them as traitors, regardless of the extent of political differences."
'A huge relief'
Activist Lina Tannir, who is mentioned in the list, responded ironically on her X account. "A blacklist is circulating, attributed to people close to Hezbollah, with the names of about 200 people accused of collaboration with Israel. I started reading it. I got about halfway through when I saw my name... I felt a huge relief," she wrote Thursday.
On Tuesday, in a separate matter, pro-federalist political figure Alfred Riachi had "categorically" denied on his X account reports shared by several Lebanese media outlets concerning his alleged arrest, just days after legal proceedings were undertaken against him by the public prosecutor, which he attributed to "lawyers affiliated with Hezbollah."
This campaign against figures hostile to the militia-party comes in the wake of Tuesday’s arrest by Lebanese authorities of an individual "very close to Hezbollah officials," suspected of being a "high-profile agent working for Israel," according to a judicial official cited by AFP.
He is alleged to have led to the "assassination of Hezbollah members, including four senior security officials," according to a judicial official. The pan-Arab daily Acharq el-Awsat reported that these included former Hezbollah Chief of Staff Fouad Shokr, killed by Israel in July 2024, and Ibrahim Aqil, head of the party’s elite al-Radwan unit, killed two months later — both in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Following the war between Israel and Hezbollah in the fall of 2024, which significantly weakened Hezbollah and eliminated its top leaders, the group announced multiple times that it had launched an internal investigation to identify "security breaches" within its ranks, with several members acknowledging that the Israeli army had managed to infiltrate its organization and grassroots base.
In October 2025, a judicial official told AFP that Lebanese authorities had arrested, in previous months, 32 people convicted of or suspected of passing information to Israel about Hezbollah leaders. In the years preceding the two most recent wars, dozens of people were arrested and tried for collaboration with the Jewish state, several of them recruited online after Lebanon’s 2019 economic crisis. Some were sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.
