Residents in several villages south of Lebanon’s Litani River have reported to the Lebanese Army that weapons had been stashed beneath their homes without their knowledge, according to sources who spoke to Al-Hadath.

The claims highlight growing unease among civilians in the country’s southern region, where the presence of non-state weapons violates UN Security Council Resolution 1701. 

The Lebanese Army has recently shut down a number of illegal crossings along the country’s porous border with Syria. Smugglers, however, are said to be actively seeking new routes to circumvent the military’s clampdown.

While the Israeli military’s ongoing presence on five key hilltops in the border region is complicating the army’s ability to fully deploy across the area, Lebanese sources emphasized that it does not prevent the army from locating and removing unauthorized weapons caches from the southern zone.