A video clip showing Lebanese Hezbollah fighters on skis in the mountains sparked a torrent of satirical comments on social media on Wednesday.
In a two-minute video clip circulating since Tuesday evening, Hezbollah fighters carry out military maneuvers on skis and snowmobiles in a mountainous area in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.
In the original video, Hezbollah replaced its usual colors – yellow and black – with white that blends with snow. Even the kinesiology has been modified.
Internet users immediately paralleled the Winter Olympics that are currently being held in China.
“They are all preparing for the Beijing Olympics! I would have liked to see them on skates, which is too bad,” launched a user on Twitter.
“Olympics 2022. Hezbollah version,” another mocked.
Others have enjoyed seeing covert support for Ukrainian forces, while Washington fears an invasion of Ukraine by neighboring Russia.
Hezbollah offers its services to Ukraine? Good marketing,” one Twitter user quipped.
Hezbollah is a Shiite armed movement loyal to Iran and has an important role in Lebanese political life, but it is also the only Lebanese faction that did not give up its military arsenal at the end of the civil war (1975-1990), in the name of “resistance” against Israel.
Some netizens also saw in this video a hidden message addressed to the Jewish state. And one of them warned: “Attention, Galilee is not far away.”
For its part, the Israeli newspaper “Jerusalem Post” indicated that Hezbollah fighters were wearing the same “white uniform” that the “Alpine Reserve Unit of the Israeli Army.” Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006.
On Tuesday evening, the Lebanese army published a video on the Internet showing soldiers training on the snow.
“What a coincidence,” netizens sarcastically remarked.
