In town overlapping Syria, Hezbollah supporters call Lebanese troops 'traitors'

A video circulating online shows a number of Hezbollah supporters calling Lebanese troops “traitors” and “Israeli agents” as the Lebanese Army deploys in the Lebanese part of the Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali town on Syria’s border.

The crowd, surrounded by Lebanese gunmen from the region, also chanted “At your service, Nasrallah!”, in reference to slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September as Israel began an all-out war on Lebanon.

The Lebanese Army entered the town on Wednesday after Syrian forces withdrew from it, as part of Lebanese-Syrian efforts aimed at halting days of clashes.

“Sixty vehicles entered into the Lebanese part of the town, as the army reinforced its presence with military and security checkpoints inside the town,” media reports said.

Armed forces belonging to Syria’s new administration made a five-kilometer incursion at 2am Tuesday into the Lebanese part of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali and continued their advance in the morning, the town’s Lebanese mayor Ali Nassereddine said.

In remarks to Annahar newspaper, the mayor said the Syrian forces seized the Lebanese government school and “displaced more than 500 Lebanese families after their homes were torched and looted during the military operations.”

The Lebanese health ministry says at least seven people were killed and 52 wounded in clashes on the border with Syria that erupted on Sunday night, after the new authorities in Damascus accused Hezbollah of abducting three soldiers into Lebanon and killing them. Hezbollah denied any involvement in the incidents.

A Lebanese security source told AFP that Syrian forces fired shells into Lebanon after the three security personnel were killed in the Lebanese village of Qasr by local gunmen involved in smuggling.

Earlier Monday President Joseph Aoun said that the Lebanese Army would respond to incoming fire from neighboring Syria.

Aoun added that he asked Lebanon's foreign minister, who was in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem "and prevent further escalation.”

In a call late on Monday, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa and his Syrian counterpart Marhaf Abu Qasra agreed to "implement a ceasefire" and prevent further escalation, the Lebanese defense ministry said.

The agreement also stipulates “enhanced coordination and cooperation between the two sides,” a statement from the Syrian Ministry of Defense said.

The army said earlier that it had undertaken "exceptional security measures and intensive communications" since Sunday night that had led to the return of the three Syrian soldiers' bodies to authorities there.

بعبارات تخوينية.. استقبال الجيش في حوش السيد علي: لبيك يا نصرالله!

انتشر مقطع مصور يظهر قيام حشد من الأشخاص في بلدة حوش السيد علي الحدودية مع سوريا باطلاق عبارات تخوينية بحق الجيش اللبناني وسط هتافات "لبيك يا نصرالله".

وكان الجيش اللبناني بدأ بالتمركز في بلدة حوش السيد علي… pic.twitter.com/3vcJbNrdSA

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) March 19, 2025