Child recruitment: Hezbollah is undermining Lebanon’s future

21st May 2026

3 minutes read

Child recruitment: Hezbollah is undermining Lebanon’s future

Allegations against Hezbollah regarding the recruitment of children in military and ideological activities are resurfacing, exposing them to numerous risks, the most severe being death.

A Lebanese media report has highlighted accusations against Hezbollah concerning the exploitation of children affiliated with its scout movement known as the “Al-Mahdi Scouts” in activities of a military and ideological nature.

This comes amid allegations that these children are being exposed to operations that could end in their deaths.

The report, covered by Fox News and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute in Washington, comes at a sensitive time coinciding with US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Lebanon, giving the issue additional political and security dimensions.

According to the report, Hezbollah has relied for decades on its scouting and educational institutions to raise children and young people within an ideological environment based on doctrinal loyalty and readiness for self-sacrifice, drawing on rhetoric that glorifies death in the service of the cause.

The report also notes that the party does not only involve children in mobilization activities, but also honors those who are killed during operations or confrontations by organizing public funerals and ceremonies in which they are presented as role models for other children. The aim, it says, is to entrench a distorted concept of “martyrdom” and encourage more youths to follow the same path.

The report adds that these practices date back to the 1980s, when the party began building an educational and cultural system linked to the ideas of the Iranian revolution and its founder, Iran’s Islamic Republic leader Khomeini, who has been previously accused of using children during the Iran–Iraq war.

The authors of the report argue that the “Al-Mahdi Scouts” do not function solely as a traditional youth or scouting movement, but play a role in shaping a generation that is ideologically tied to the party and prepared to participate in its future activities.

For many years

Matthew Levitt, a researcher specializing in Hezbollah affairs at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that the issue of child recruitment and ideological indoctrination through the “Al-Mahdi Scouts” has been documented for many years.

He stressed that the party uses youth institutions as a means of instilling its ideology and strengthening its influence within Lebanon’s Shiite community.

Political analyst Walid Phares also considers that children involved in these activities can be described as “child fighters,” explaining that they are sometimes assigned tasks such as transporting ammunition or gathering intelligence, as part of a gradual process of preparing them to become active members of the organization in the future.

For her part, Sarit Zahavi, a researcher at the ALMA Research and Education Center, called on the international community to take stronger measures against the exploitation of children.

She urged the closure of institutions affiliated with the party that operate under civilian or scouting cover, and the creation of educational and social alternatives for Shiite children through Lebanese state institutions, in order to strengthen loyalty to the state rather than to parties or external actors.

She emphasized that achieving this goal requires broad international pressure led by the United States and Western countries.