By: Andrew Carlson – Jewish Voice News

In a revelation that has reignited scrutiny over the opaque forces governing Lebanon’s security landscape, the Israel Defense Forces disclosed new intelligence this week alleging that Hezbollah operatives were directly responsible for assassinating four Lebanese public figures who sought to expose the group’s connection to the catastrophic Beirut Port explosion of August 2020. The details were published by IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who posted the findings on X on Tuesday—an announcement that i24 News described in a report on Tuesday as one of the most consequential public allegations yet touching the long-contested narrative surrounding the port blast.

According to the IDF account, the disclosures center around Hezbollah’s clandestine Unit 121, which the i24 News report noted has been repeatedly linked to internal liquidation operations targeting political opponents, dissident journalists, and individuals perceived as threats to the group’s strategic interests. The IDF alleges that Unit 121 executed four meticulously planned assassinations over a four-year period, each intended to silence officials who had uncovered, or attempted to expose, the organization’s illicit stockpiling of ammonium nitrate at the port—material that ultimately triggered the explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands, and devastated entire districts of Beirut.

Among the most disturbing cases is that of Joseph Skaff, the former head of the Beirut Port Customs Department. According to the IDF’s intelligence summary, Skaff was killed in 2017—three years before the explosion—after he repeatedly pushed for the removal of ammonium nitrate shipments that he identified as dangerously unstable and linked to Hezbollah’s covert activities. The IDF alleges that operatives of Unit 121 murdered Skaff by throwing him from a significant height, staging the death as a tragic accident.

At the time, Lebanese authorities closed the investigation without resolution, a failure that strengthened suspicions among independent watchdogs that powerful actors were interfering with the case. With the IDF’s new allegations, those suspicions now take on even more ominous weight.

The second killing outlined by the IDF concerns Mounir Abu Rjeili, a former head of the anti-smuggling unit within Lebanon’s Customs Administration. Abu Rjeili was found stabbed to death in December 2020, just months after the Beirut explosion. According to the IDF—and corroborated by analysis from i24 News—Rjeili had provided internal information linking Hezbollah to the storage of explosive materials at the port, making him a direct threat to the group’s narrative and reputation.

That same month, another assassination rocked Lebanon’s already fragile institutions: the killing of photographer and military contractor Joe Bejjani. Bejjani was among the first professionals to document the Beirut blast site and was believed to have captured sensitive images and evidence in the chaotic aftermath. The IDF alleges that Unit 121 gunmen ambushed Bejjani in his vehicle, shot him at close range, and seized his phone before fleeing—an operation that bore the hallmarks of intelligence-directed retrieval rather than random violence.

Finally, the IDF’s report revisits the death of prominent political activist and outspoken Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim. Slim, a well-known intellectual and publisher, had spent years documenting the group’s abuses and expanding its influence through systematic intimidation. He was shot to death in February 2021. According to the information provided in the i24 News report, Slim had publicly—and repeatedly—accused Hezbollah and the Assad regime of playing a direct role in the conditions that caused the 2020 blast. The IDF alleges that Unit 121 targeted Slim specifically to extinguish one of the most influential Lebanese voices demanding accountability.

In all four cases, Hezbollah vehemently denied any involvement, a stance reiterated by its officials in statements highlighted in the i24 News report. Yet the investigations into these assassinations have either stalled, been redirected, or—in some instances—closed without conclusion, fueling allegations of political interference within Lebanon’s governing and judicial institutions.

The IDF claims these four cases are only part of a more extensive pattern and explicitly referenced prior killings attributed to Hezbollah, including the assassinations of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and political activist Elias al-Hatzrani. The i24 News report noted that while the IDF’s allegations cannot be independently confirmed, they mirror longstanding accusations voiced by Lebanese civil society figures, opposition politicians, and international human rights organizations.

In its post, the IDF emphasized its intention to expose what it called Hezbollah’s “brutal actions against the Lebanese public,” stating that ordinary Lebanese civilians have increasingly voiced intolerance for what they view as the organization’s domination of the state. According to the information contained in the i24 News report, the IDF framed the revelations as part of a broader campaign to weaken Hezbollah’s regional influence and prevent it from reconstituting its military infrastructure along Israel’s northern border.

The Beirut Port explosion remains one of the most traumatic moments in Lebanon’s modern history—an event that triggered mass protests, toppled governments, and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Yet, as i24 News reported, the judicial inquiry into the blast has been marred by political paralysis, judicial intimidation, and relentless stonewalling by powerful factions. Many Lebanese citizens, including victims’ families, have long argued that the explosion was not merely a tragedy of negligence but one of deliberate concealment.

The IDF’s revelations arrive amid heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, with i24 News reporting that cross-border clashes have intensified in recent months as regional actors recalibrate their strategies following the Gaza war. Intelligence disclosures of this magnitude, experts say, serve multiple purposes: undermining Hezbollah’s legitimacy internally, bolstering Israel’s diplomatic messaging internationally, and signaling to Lebanon’s fractured political entities that complicity in Hezbollah’s shadow operations will be scrutinized.

In concluding his announcement, Adraee declared that the IDF would continue both its operational campaign against Hezbollah’s military reconstruction and its public campaign to expose the organization’s crimes against its own people. “Lebanese civilians have clearly expressed that they will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to continue oppressing and harming them,” he said, according to the i24 News report.

Whether these revelations will prompt renewed efforts inside Lebanon to pursue accountability remains uncertain. But as the i24 News report observed, the IDF’s detailed allegations represent a significant intervention in the narrative battle surrounding the Beirut Port explosion—and a reminder that the struggle over truth, justice, and political control in Lebanon is far from resolved.