IDF reveals Hezbollah’s Unit 121 poisoned and staged death of Christian politician Elias Hasrouni in 2023.
Newsroom (14/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a revelation that pierces the veil of secrecy shrouding Lebanon’s fractured political landscape, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has accused Hezbollah’s elite Unit 121 of orchestrating the brutal assassination of Elias Hasrouni, a 72-year-old Christian leader whose unwavering voice for liberty echoed the Gospel’s call to truth amid oppression. Hasrouni, secretary-general of the Lebanese Forces central council in Bint Jbeil, was not merely a politician but a shepherd of his community, defending the dignity of Lebanon’s Maronite and Christian heritage against the encroaching shadows of terror.
The IDF’s disclosure, shared Friday by Arabic-language spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, paints a harrowing picture of the events on August 1, 2023. Operatives from Unit 121, Hezbollah‘s covert assassination arm, ambushed Hasrouni on a quiet road near his home in the Christian village of Ain Ebel, southern Lebanon. They abducted the elderly critic, inflicted broken ribs through savage beatings, and administered poison to silence him forever. To mask their crime, the perpetrators returned his body to his vehicle, ramming it into a tree and abandoning it in a roadside ditch – a grotesque masquerade as a mere traffic accident.
This act is not just political violence but a profound desecration of human life, the sacred image of God imprinted on every soul, as proclaimed in Genesis and reaffirmed by the Catholic Church’s unyielding defense of the vulnerable. Hasrouni’s life exemplified the Christian witness in Lebanon’s crucible: a nation where the Cross has stood as a beacon since St. Maron’s era, yet now imperiled by forces that sow division and despair. Pope Leo XIV, in his repeated pleas for Middle Eastern peace since his election in May, has decried such “cycles of hatred” that devour the innocent, urging dialogue over domination – a message he will carry personally to Lebanon in his apostolic journey from November 30 to December 2, the motto of which, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” resonates as a direct rebuke to the assassins who silenced Hasrouni. Hasrouni’s murder – one in a litany of silenced voices – underscores the urgent need for Lebanon’s Christians to reclaim their role as peacemakers, drawing strength from the martyrs who preceded them.
This is no isolated tragedy. Unit 121, operating under Hezbollah’s high command and exposed by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has a bloodstained ledger targeting those who dare oppose the group’s Iranian-backed grip on the country. Its most infamous strike felled former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a 2005 Beirut car bombing that claimed 22 lives, including the devout Sunni leader whose vision for a sovereign Lebanon resonated with ecumenical solidarity. Tribunal convictions in 2020 and 2022 held Unit 121 commander Salim Ayyash and accomplices accountable in absentia, sentencing them to life for this premeditated horror – a verdict that, while just, cries out for enforcement to deter further shadows.
Nor was Hasrouni alone among Christian Lebanese Forces figures. Just months earlier, in April 2024, Pascal Sleiman, the party’s Byblos coordinator, was kidnapped and slain in northern Lebanon’s Kharbeh district. Ambushed by a Syrian gang – amid suspicions of Hezbollah orchestration or facilitation – Sleiman’s body was dumped across the border in Homs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Lebanese authorities arrested several perpetrators, including gang leader Bilal Mohammad Dello, but the case’s cross-border echoes raise grave questions about complicity in silencing Christian dissent. Sleiman’s death, like Hasrouni’s, ignited protests and deepened sectarian fissures, a painful echo of the 2005 Cedar Revolution sparked by Hariri’s martyrdom.
Unit 121’s reach extends beyond politicians to journalists, officers, and intellectuals – a “death squad,” as experts term it, enforcing conformity through fear. Victims include Lokman Slim, a Shia thinker and Hezbollah foe gunned down in 2021, and a string of anti-Syrian voices from 2005-2007 that tipped parliamentary balances. In this pattern, one discerns not strategy but sin: the rejection of God’s command, “Thou shalt not kill,” in favor of power’s idolatry.
As Lebanon teeters post-ceasefire, with the IDF questioning the Lebanese army’s disarmament efforts against Hezbollah, the faithful are called to hope rooted in prayer and action. The Maronite Patriarchate, steward of Lebanon’s Christian soul, has long advocated for a state free from militias, echoing Vatican II’s vision of religious freedom. Pope Leo XIV’s impending visit – his first apostolic journey abroad, encompassing Lebanon after Türkiye – amplifies this call, with a schedule rich in symbols of resilience: prayer at the Shrine of Saint Charbel in Annaya, a meeting with bishops and consecrated persons at Harissa’s Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, and a poignant stop at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion for silent reflection. There, amid the scars of tragedy, the Holy Father will lead an interfaith gathering and a grand outdoor Mass on Beirut’s waterfront, meeting President Joseph Aoun and civil authorities to plead for reconciliation in a land battered by war. Adraee’s words ring true: Lebanese yearning for stability must reject this “collapsing Iranian proxy” that drags them into war. Yet justice demands more – international resolve to prosecute Unit 121’s ghosts, bolstering Lebanon’s institutions, and fostering interfaith bonds that honor Christ’s plea for unity.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Jerusalem Post, i24 News, Israelnational News, Wikipedia, Washington Post, Vatican News
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