Hezbollah grooms children for martyrdom through its scout movement, report claims

close Video Rubio addresses Middle East tensions and Cuba's future in exclusive interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in an exclusive interview about escalating Middle East tensions, including the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire and the imperative to dismantle Hezbollah. Rubio also highlights Cuba's status as a failed state and its national security threats to the United States, advocating for substantial economic reforms to address the country's energy crisis. He further discusses the Trump administration's firm stance against Iran's use of the Strait of Hormuz. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Hören Sie sich diesen Artikel an 3 Min The U.S.-designated Lebanon-based terrorist movement Hezbollah exploits children from its version of the scout movement to carry out jihadi missions that result in their deaths, according to a recent report on Lebanon’s MTV television network. The Lebanese network’s report — translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — comes amid U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Beirut. The report claims that Hezbollah gives child fighters heroes’ funerals and publicly glorifies them before their peers in order to encourage other children to follow in their footsteps. The MTV report said Hezbollah believes that every drop of bloodshed by child soldiers brings victory closer. Israel POUNDS Hezbollah TARGETS, DARING Lebanon TO RECLAIM SOVEREIGNTY FROM Iran-BACKED TERROR PROXY Hezbollah al-Mahdi Scouts parade with large portraits of Iran's late leader Ayatollah Khomeini and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an event for Jerusalem Day in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, on Aug. 1, 2013. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo) It also claimed that Hezbollah uses its scout movements to cultivate an entire generation of obedient children prepared to die, through rhetoric that glorifies death and martyrdom. The MTV report, according to the MEMRI translation, said that "Hezbollah child soldiers have been used since the 1980s by this outlaw armed group. Not just as armed fighters but as Khomeini-loyal scouts." The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reportedly exploited the use of Iranian children during the country’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq. Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, said that "Hezbollah's recruitment and radicalization of youth through its Mahdi Scouts is long documented," other experts talking to Fox News Digital concurred. "Hezbollah has boy scouts, and they have been taught jihad, and it is a well-known thing in Lebanon," Mideast expert Walid Phares told Fox News Digital. UNRWA SCHOOLS ‘HIJACKED BY HAMAS,’ WATCHDOG REPORT WARNS The Lebanon expert said they could be termed "children jihadists" who are preparing to become full Hezbollah fighters. Phares said they mostly assign them [the children of Hezbollah fighters] to spying and transporting ammunition. He argued if the scouts are getting funding from a ministry or national boy scouts association in Lebanon, they should be sanctioned if they have the evidence. Multiple Fox News Digital Emails and phone calls to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) were not immediately returned. The U.S. branch of WOSM referred Fox News Digital to WOSM, which is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Scouts loyal to the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement, taking part in a procession on the 13th of Muharram on the Islamic calendar, raise their arms in salute as they march past posters of (L to R) Hezbollah's slain military leader Imad Moghniyeh, current leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in Lebanon's southern city of Nabatiyeh on Aug.12, 2022. - The procession follows Ashura, a 10-day period commemorating the seventh century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein, in the battle of Karbala in Iraq. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images) Girl scouts of pro-Iranian Hezbollah al-Mahdi Scouts display pictures of assassinated party leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine during a ceremony at Beirut Sports City labelled as the "New Generation of al-Sayyed [Hassan Nasrallah]," to mark the first anniversary of his death by Israeli attack on Lebanon in Oct. 2025 (Marwan Naamani/picture alliance via Getty Images) A Hezbollah expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, Sarit Zehavi, called for action against the exploitation of children by the terror group. "The only way to bring a change is to designate all of these allegedly civilian activities of Hezbollah and close the movement of its scouts, and enable the Shiites of Lebanon to have a different source of services, whether it is educational, formal or informal, which will be part of the Lebanese state, and not part of Hezbollah. The loyalty will be to the Lebanese state and not to Khomeini and the Islamic Republic." She added, "This is only something Lebanon can do with a lot of international pressure, of course, led by the United States." An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, posted on X: "Hezbollah sacrifices Lebanese children to further the ambitions of the Iranian regime. This isn’t ‘resistance’. It’s child abuse." Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.S. declined to provide comment for this article. Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at benjamin.weinthal@fox.com Fox News' Antisemitism Exposed" newsletter brings you stories on the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world." By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. 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