On July 21, 2026, the Syrian General Authority for Border Crossings and Customs (الهيئة العامة للمنافذ والجمارك السورية) announced that customs officers at the Jdeidet Yabous (جديدة يابوس) border crossing on the Syria–Lebanon border had intercepted an attempt to smuggle 226 RGC hand grenades. The grenades had been concealed in hidden compartments inside a vehicle bound for Lebanon and were intercepted before the shipment reached the corresponding Lebanese border crossing at al-Masnaa – a Hezbollah smuggling route, as documented in our April 2026 report.
This interception, along with numerous other intercepted attempts to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon since the rise of Ahmad al-Sharaa’s regime in December 2024, demonstrates that the Syria–Lebanon smuggling routes remain active channels for supplying Hezbollah with weapons. Despite the collapse of the Assad regime and the political changes in Syria, the Shiite Axis’ smuggling infrastructure continues to operate, adapting its methods and seeking to preserve its logistical network.
In this context, we have also attached an updated situational map identifying the locations of Hezbollah smuggling attempts from Syria into Lebanon, based on open-source information published since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.
