Poll: 66.4% of Lebanese Shi'ites Want State to Control Hezbollah Arms

A September poll found most Lebanese Shi'ites want Hezbollah's weapons handed to the state.

Statistics Lebanon surveyed 800 Lebanese Shi'ites in September. The results, released in mid-October and reported by Israel's public broadcaster KAN and the Lebanese website Kataeb.org, show 66.4% support transferring the arsenal to the Lebanese state. Another 29.6% said Hezbollah should keep its weapons. Hezbollah has long argued the arms are needed to defend Lebanon against Israel.

Kataeb.org, run by the Christian Kataeb Party, reported additional figures from the survey. Of respondents, 71.1% said decisions on war and peace belong only to the Lebanese state. Just 5.9% said Hezbollah's leadership should play a larger role in shaping the country's future.

Trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces ran at 78.5%, and 51.1% named the army as the institution best placed to guarantee long-term security. Hezbollah drew 16.5% on that question. The results are mixed on the group itself: 67.4% said Hezbollah failed to meet its goals in the war with Israel or met only some of them, while 42.1% expressed disappointment, anger or concern about its leadership and the conflict's consequences. Still, 59.5% reported some trust in Hezbollah, including 37.1% who said they had a great deal of trust. KAN's Roi Kais said Hezbollah's support networks and the status it has given the community keep its strength intact as long as no other entity fills that space.

A May 2026 survey by Lebanon's Information International pointed the other way. In a June 10 analysis for Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, researchers Orna Mizrahi and Moran Levanoni cited that poll's finding that 87.5% of Shi'ite respondents opposed disarming Hezbollah and 7.9% supported giving up its weapons, with more than 90% opposing ties with Israel. The researchers wrote that Hezbollah's influence rests on its social and economic networks, its political power and the historical marginalization of Lebanon's Shi'ites, and that intimidation has discouraged dissent. They said weakening the group would require a stronger Lebanese army and Western and Gulf financial support so the state can replace the services Hezbollah provides.

KAN reported that property owners in the southern city of Tyre opposed opening a branch of the Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan in their building, fearing an Israeli strike. Hezbollah has announced aid of up to $14,000 for eligible families in Beirut and its southern suburbs whose primary homes were destroyed, and up to $12,000 elsewhere. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in September 2024, and a new war began in March 2026, causing heavy destruction in villages in southern Lebanon.