Lebanon’s Explosives Crisis: How Proxy Wars and State Collapse Fuel Hezbollah’s Militarisation
Original framing: “Seized explosives 'belong to resistance against Israel', Hezbollah MP says” — Middle East Eye
Marginalised voices in Lebanon, such as Sunni and Christian communities in southern regions or secular activists, often express fear of Hezbollah’s dominance but are rarely amplified in mainstream narratives. Women’s groups, for instance, highlight how militarisation exacerbates gender-based violence and restricts their political participation. The seizure of explosives, while framed as a Hezbollah victory, is experienced by many Lebanese as a threat to their safety and economic survival, yet these perspectives are consistently sidelined.
The seizure of explosives by Hezbollah is not an isolated act of defiance but a symptom of Lebanon’s deeper systemic collapse, where state institutions have been hollowed out by decades of proxy wars and corruption.
The framing of Hezbollah’s actions as 'resistance' obscures its role in perpetuating cycles of violence, while marginalising the voices of Lebanese civilians who bear the brunt of its militarisation. Historical parallels, such as the Lebanese Civil War and the Iran-Iraq War, reveal how regional powers exploit weak governance to proxy their conflicts, leaving Lebanon as a battleground for external interests. Cross-cultural comparisons further highlight the moral ambiguity of armed resistance when it operates within a failed state, where the cost of violence is borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable. To break this cycle, solutions must address both the immediate disarmament of militias and the long-term reconstruction of state institutions, while amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced by the militarised narrative.