Around 700 Iranian nationals who entered Lebanon during the months of war are now unaccounted for, with Lebanese security sources and intelligence reports saying there are strong indications that many were killed while operating alongside Hezbollah.

The reports, based on cross-checks of Lebanese security information and intelligence assessments, say the figures are no longer confined to closed security circles, with Lebanese media beginning to report the issue more openly.

According to the reports cited by Erem News, an examination of arrivals through Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport and official land border crossings showed a sharp increase in the number of Iranians entering Lebanon during the war, under a variety of stated purposes.

Reports have focused on the absence of the missing Iranians from civilian hospital records and official lists of the wounded. The lack of such records is being viewed by Lebanese security sources as an indication that their presence in Lebanon may have been linked to clandestine military activities.

Lebanese sources familiar with the matter told Erem News that the issue had remained largely out of public discussion because Tehran and Hezbollah wanted to keep it away from international scrutiny and avoid additional legal consequences for Lebanon.

The sources said the increased movement of Iranians into Lebanon since late 2024 took place under the cover of diplomatic missions, relief and humanitarian teams, as well as what were described as "religious visits" and accompanying personnel.

Lebanese internal investigations and investigative reporting have indicated that a large proportion of those who entered were elite officers, engineers and technical experts affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, particularly its Quds Force, which is responsible for overseas operations, the sources said.

The Lebanese sources further alleged that the identities of the roughly 700 missing Iranians were not included in the Lebanese Health Ministry's official casualty records.

They said Hezbollah had separated the bodies of Iranian fighters and experts from other casualties and transferred them through clandestine land routes into Syria, from where they were taken to Damascus and eventually to Tehran. The alleged transfers were intended to spare the Lebanese government embarrassment and prevent Israel from obtaining legal or international evidence of a direct Iranian military presence in Lebanon, according to the sources.

Iranian Command Network

The Israeli strike on the Ramada Hotel in Beirut's Raouche district, which killed senior financial and intelligence figures from the Quds Force, was cited as evidence of the depth of Iran's command network in the Lebanese capital.

Political analyst Michel Najm told Erem News that the reported number of missing Iranians pointed to a major change in the nature of Tehran's role in Lebanon.

Iran's involvement had moved beyond financial support and the supply of weapons from afar and had become a direct presence on the ground, with Tehran sharing in the human cost of the conflict, Najm said.

He said the disappearance of around 700 Iranians suggested that Tehran had deployed second- and third-tier advisers to operate Hezbollah's drone, precision-guided missile and encrypted communications systems, particularly after Israeli strikes hit the group's leadership structure.

Najm said most of those experts were based in fortified shelters and underground command centers. When Israel targeted such facilities with bunker-busting bombs, he said, bodies could be buried under the rubble and evidence destroyed, leaving the individuals officially classified as missing.

Government Efforts

The Lebanese government under Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had repeatedly asked Tehran to regulate the movement of its personnel and to remove military figures whose activities went beyond the diplomatic sphere, according to the sources.

On the ground, however, Hezbollah maintains a parallel authority that provides cover for such personnel to enter and leave Lebanon through both official and unofficial crossings, the sources said.

Iran's military presence in Lebanon through its relationship with Hezbollah is not a product of the current conflict, but part of a strategy that stretches back more than four decades.

In 1982, amid Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Tehran took advantage of the turmoil to send an advance group of IRGC personnel and trainers to the Bekaa Valley.

During the 1990s and after 2000, Iran's role moved into a phase of what the reports describe as "systematic empowerment and development." Iranian experts oversaw the construction of complex tunnel networks and trained Hezbollah's special units in operating its conventional missile arsenal and techniques for concealment.

By 2024, that role had undergone another shift, moving beyond training and capacity-building toward direct involvement in the management of field command centers and logistics.

The aim, according to the reports, was to prevent Hezbollah's military structures from collapsing after the group suffered major leadership losses. The development would also explain, the reports say, the increased presence of Iranian experts near the front lines and the large number of Iranians now considered missing.

Earlier information leaked to international media, including Reuters, indicated that Tehran had sent senior officers to Lebanon after temporary ceasefires or periods of reduced fighting to conduct comprehensive reviews of Hezbollah's leadership structure.

Shift to 'Mosaic Defense'

The reports say Hezbollah subsequently moved away from a traditional "vertical hierarchical command" structure toward a system of independent cluster cells, a military approach known as "mosaic defense."

The model is designed to allow individual units to continue operating independently and maintain missile launches even if communications with Hezbollah's central command in Beirut are disrupted.