BEIRUT: The Lebanese army on Tuesday set up inspection checkpoints on the highway leading from Beirut to southern Lebanon, particularly in the Zahrani area toward Nabatieh and Tyre, in implementation of the government’s recent decisions to ban Hezbollah’s military activity.
The military checkpoints focused on vehicles traveling south in an unusual development as tens of thousands of residents were simultaneously fleeing in the opposite direction toward Beirut after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to civilians in dozens of villages south and north of the Litani River.
At the army positions, security personnel checked identification documents, searched vehicles for weapons, and questioned drivers about the purpose of their travel to the south.
The measures mark an unprecedented scene in Lebanon over the past four decades. Since the end of the civil war, Hezbollah has retained its arsenal under the banner of “resistance,” unlike other militias that disarmed under the 1989 Taif Agreement and subsequent international resolutions.
A judicial source told Arab News that the Lebanese army checkpoints are tasked with searching for those carrying weapons and launching rockets, and arresting all armed individuals, but noted that “so far no one has been arrested.”
