Lebanon (MNN) — As Lebanon’s chaos continues, new information leads to broader questions and observations. For example, Hezbollah – a known terrorist group – wields significant power in Lebanon. Were they connected to last week’s explosion?
Initial evidence says ‘no,’ but critics have their doubts.
“I don’t think it [was] a terrorist act of Hezbollah, but this is what Hezbollah was going to use to make bombs,” Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says. He points to the mass quantity of explosive material stored in a port warehouse as the source of his suspicion.
“Ammonium nitrate is used to make fertilizer and, of course, high powered explosives.”
“I didn’t hear a boom daddy! Cause I was looking at the three angels standing in front of us.”
(Photo, caption courtesy Uncharted Ministries)
Doyle isn’t the only one voicing apprehension. Times of Israel cites reports claiming that the Mossad tipped off European intelligence agencies last year about Hezbollah storing caches of ammonium nitrate for use in bombs in London, Cyprus, and elsewhere.
While acknowledging that “determining Hezbollah’s guilt based on its control over Beirut’s Port is relying on circumstantial evidence, at best,” research analyst David Daoud adds:
As Lebanon’s strongest faction — possessing its own shadow state, media organs, influential parliamentary bloc, and ministerial presence — Hezbollah may have been uniquely positioned to rectify this dangerous oversight. And yet it failed to do so.
According to Daoud’s claim, Hezbollah failed to intervene and prevent mass casualties. The Lord’s protection, however, faithfully remained. Read about “Jesus miracles” and divine intervention in Beirut.
As investigations into last week’s disaster continue, Doyle warns of Hezbollah’s influence on Lebanese society.
“[Terrorists’] obsessive frenzy to kill people they hate blinds them to the needs of the people they supposedly love. Look at how the people live in Gaza with Hamas, Afghanistan with the Taliban, Iran with the terrorist-led regime. Look at Lebanon with Hezbollah,” Doyle notes.
“Terrorism is a self-inflicting wound on the people that the terrorists claim to protect.”
Living under Hezbollah control
Hezbollah’s harmful influence is more than theory or speculation. Nuna, a Lebanese believer with Triumphant Mercy, expresses frustration. “I feel like we’re hostage to Hezbollah decisions. They decide where we’re going with foreign affairs, and we don’t want this,” she says.
“We need a lasting solution, and we need God to intervene because this is not done by human hands.”
Triumphant Mercy staff organize food distributions in Beirut.
(Photo courtesy of Triumphant Mercy)
Triumphant Mercy began in 2006 as a response to the Hezbollah/Israeli war. The ministry opened its first community center a decade later, and today cares for people in Christ’s name as the Lord leads. Last week’s disaster provided a Gospel opportunity for ministry staff:
Our Beirut center was damaged as our front window had been knocked out, and when we gathered to clean, there was a consensus that we needed to do something else. Volunteers were called and 400 sandwiches were made to be passed out in neighborhoods that were now rubble to people [whose] last thought was food, but their minds were on finding missing family members and friends and to see what was left of their homes.
It’s hard to bring lasting Christ-centered solutions into Lebanese lives when broader crises seem never-ending. After the Beirut blast, “it’s not just, ‘Let peace come, and everyone goes back to his corner, and then we wait for another time when it blows up again.’ We need a lasting solution,” Nuna says.
“We need Lebanon to be completely set free from the Iranian dominance, the Hezbollah order.”
Header image courtesy of Uncharted Ministries.
