Israel revives Elias Hasrouni's case with new accusation against Hezbollah’s Unit 121 — the details

Report by Edmond Sassine, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Two years and three months after the killing of Elias Hasrouni, a resident of the southern border town of Ain Ebel, Israel has stepped into the case in what some view as suspicious timing.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed that Hezbollah’s Unit 121 assassinated Hasrouni. In a social media post, he alleged that the unit ambushed him on the road to his home in Ain Ebel, kidnapped him, killed him using poison and by fracturing his ribs, and then tried to create the impression he had died in a car accident.

Adraee did not present new information in the case other than directly accusing Hezbollah.

When Hasrouni was found dead in his car on a road between Ain Ebel and Hanine, the initial assumption was that he had died in a traffic accident. But his family and friends suspected foul play. 

Two days later, they reviewed footage from a nearby home security camera and found that the incident involved a professional, organized kidnapping and killing. At least two vehicles intercepted Hasrouni as he drove home before he and his car were discovered pushed off the roadside.

A forensic doctor later confirmed fractures in his ribs. The family requested an autopsy—after the burial—and toxicology tests, which came back negative, according to family sources. 

Hasrouni, who was 70, was a former Lebanese Forces coordinator in Bint Jbeil. He was imprisoned after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 on charges of belonging to the South Lebanon Army, and was later released and questioned again.

Claims about Unit 121, sometimes described as Hezbollah’s special operations unit, allegedly responsible for assassinating journalists and political figures, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, circulated previously in 2020 alongside findings from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Adraee offered no evidence linking Unit 121 to Hasrouni’s killing. Lebanese sources warned that circulating such allegations risks inflaming tensions in southern villages, noting that Adraee intentionally highlighted that Hasrouni was Christian.

The timing of the allegation also coincides with a series of Israeli claims that Hezbollah is rebuilding its military infrastructure and could face new strikes. 

Lebanese sources view those claims as exaggerated, especially after the heavy losses Hezbollah suffered during the war and in the period following the ceasefire, during which Israel has continued to strike targets without deterrence.