In an apparent provocation of war, The Telegraph in the United Kingdom, citing only anonymous sources, reported that Hezbollah is allegedly "storing missiles and explosives at Lebanon's main airport."
As the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza shifts to a war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, The Telegraph is claiming without concrete evidence that Hezbollah is supposedly battening the hatches at the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport.
"Hezbollah stores missiles and explosives at Lebanon's main airport, whistleblowers claim," The Telegraph claims in its article, which is titled with the headline: "Exclusive: Terrorists pass through 'bribed' customs officers unchallenged with large amounts of Iranian weaponry."
Calling its anonymous sources "whistleblowers," The Telegraph article reads like textbook propaganda in that it is an obvious narrative pushing for Israel to blow up Lebanon's main airport.
One so-called whistleblower says workers collaborating with Hezbollah in Lebanon "walk around like peacocks" with all sorts of fancy consumables like new watches, new smartphones, and new cars.
"A lot of money [is] being passed under the table," the whistleblower is quoted as saying.
(Related: In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack in Israel, a Hamas leader warned that Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah were ready to "join the battle.")
IDF backs The Telegraph propaganda claims pushing for attack on Beirut Airport
In a statement in response to the article, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hezbollah operates in the same way that Israel claims Hamas operates:
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"Hezbollah's strategy to hide weapons and operate from civilian neighborhoods stems from its intentions to draw the IDF to target these civilian areas in times of escalation," the IDF said.
"If Hezbollah were to target Israeli civilians from these sites, the IDF would have no choice but to react, potentially placing Lebanese civilians in harm's way, causing international outrage toward the IDF."
The Lebanese Air Transport Union (UTA) in Lebanon issued a statement as well, shared by Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen, denying the claims of The Telegraph and the IDF concerning the alleged weapons of war that are hiding at Beirut Airport.
"The Air Transport Union in Lebanon denied in a statement The Telegraph's report in which it claimed that 'Hezbollah stores missiles and explosives at Lebanon's main airport,' saying that these clams were made without any proof offered, one report explains about the matter."
The Telegraph's unfounded claims are "mere illusions and lies aimed at endangering Beirut Airport and its civilian workers, as well as travelers to and from it, all of whom are civilians," the UTA statement reads.
Should anything happen to Beirut Airport and the people who work there in the coming days, it will be the fault of The Telegraph, the IDF, and all "those who report on it and spread falsehoods … including the passenger terminal, departure and arrival, the apron, maintenance, and civil air cargo."
UTA wants all Lebanese, Arab and foreign media outlets to bring their camera crews to Beirut Airport to "verify for themselves, otherwise we consider what is being promoted by suspicious media outlets as incitement to kill us."
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati also called on all media outlets and ambassadors or their representatives to visit the airport at a specified time to take a tour "to make sure that the airport is strictly a civilian infrastructure and that no weapons are being smuggled through it."
"We have nothing to hide," Mikati said emphatically.
As a reminder, The Telegraph ran a propaganda piece at the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022 falsely claiming that Russia was using "mobile crematoriums" to "hide evidence of battlefield casualties."
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