BEIRUT - Lebanese internal security forces stumbled onto a weapons cache containing military rifles, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, detonators, and detailed neighborhood maps while raiding a Beirut apartment over a domestic shooting incident, multiple Lebanese outlets reported Tuesday.
The Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces conducted a dawn raid on the home of Hani Jawad in Ras al Nabaa, a neighborhood in the Mazraa quarter of east-central Beirut, after a family dispute escalated into gunfire. According to Al Modon, a Beirut-based Qatari-owned newspaper, Jawad accidentally shot his sister-in-law in the foot and sent her to the hospital during a quarrel with his wife’s relatives. Military Court Government Commissioner Claude Ghanem authorized the arrest and apartment search.
Officers expected to recover the handgun used in the dispute but instead found what Al Modon described as a small arms depot: 15 military rifles, 10 RPG rounds, party flags and emblems, quantities of ready-to-use detonators, and detailed maps of Ras al Nabaa and its surroundings. MTV Lebanon, which broke the story, published an image showing several rifles, firearms components, ammunition clips, tactical equipment, and wrapped cylindrical and block-like objects consistent with explosives or propellant charges.
MTV reported that Jawad admitted during preliminary interrogation that he belonged to Hezbollah. Al Arabiya, citing unnamed Lebanese sources, corroborated the claimed affiliation and framed the discovery as “a raid in Beirut’s Ras Al Nabaa uncovers a sabotage plot,” adding that “the weapons were intended” for carrying out that alleged sabotage plot. Neither outlet quoted an official ISF statement, provided independent evidence of Jawad’s Hezbollah membership, or identified his organizational role — whether armed operative, logistics facilitator, political member, or supporter.
Al Jadeed TV, a station aligned with Hezbollah’s broader political camp, cited Lebanese Interior Ministry sources confirming the seizure of weapons, ammunition, RPGs, and other military equipment but did not mention Jawad by name, reference his affiliation, or cite a sabotage plot.
Investigators traced an unusual electrical line from the apartment to a tire shop less than 200 meters away. Ghanem authorized an immediate search of the shop, which uncovered older mobile phones and several DVR units used to record surveillance-camera footage. Unnamed security and judicial sources told Al Modon the shop may have served as a technical room for monitoring movement in the neighborhood. Authorities were reportedly examining the maps to determine whether they related to targets or security routes, though no outlet established that interpretation as fact.
The discovery appears to have been entirely incidental. Available reports identify the family dispute as the sole trigger for the raid and portray the arms find as unexpected. Nothing publicly available indicates the ISF had prior intelligence about the cache or knew of Jawad’s claimed Hezbollah ties before entering the residence. Lebanon is bound by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of armed groups including Hezbollah south of the Litani River and restricts the group’s military activities nationwide. Lebanese authorities have not issued a formal public statement on the seizure or on any continuing investigation.