BEIRUT, Lebanon — A video published by a Lebanese TV outlet caricaturing Hezbollah’s leaders and fighters as characters from the “Angry Birds” mobile phone games drew a rebuke from the terror group, which called the clip “offensive” on Saturday.
On social media, Hezbollah’s supporters condemned what they considered the ridiculing of leader Naim Qassem, who is also a Shia cleric, with some reacting by sharing images insulting Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, the highest Christian authority in Lebanon.
The video, shared by the LBCI channel on Friday, depicts Qassem addressing his fighters — with all of them depicted as birds from the popular video games — as they fight the Israeli army, portrayed as the series’ green pigs.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the video contained “offensive and cheap insults that degrade political discourse to a repulsive level.”
The terror group also called on supporters not to be “drawn into” the controversy “orchestrated by the enemies of the resistance.”
LBCI was founded in the 1980s by the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party opposed to Hezbollah.
بين الغضب والمكر، يشتعل الصراع#LBCINews @BBchannellb pic.twitter.com/W2K0OTi1oY
— LBCI Lebanon News (@LBCI_NEWS) May 1, 2026
However, the channel distanced itself from the party years ago and has been trying to present a more independent image since.
“Before our holy symbols and our sheikh (Qassem), all holy symbols fall,” one Hezbollah supporter wrote on X, referring to Maronite Patriarch Rai.
After the wave of insults, Rai was contacted by several officials and religious leaders criticizing the rhetoric.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, in a statement on Saturday, “condemned and rejected any attacks on the heads of Christian and Muslim religious communities and spiritual figures in Lebanon.”
He also urged the public “to refrain from personal insults, given the negative repercussions of such practices, especially in the current circumstances the country is going through, which require broad national solidarity.”
Despite the relative freedom of expression enjoyed in Lebanon in comparison to other Arab countries, the media, artists, and comedians have faced harassment over work deemed by some to be offensive to political or religious figures.
Israel has carried out massive airstrikes and pushed troops farther into Lebanon after Hezbollah, on March 2, launched its rocket attacks on Israel in support of its patron, Iran.
The terror group has said its renewed attacks on Israel were in response both to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran on February 28, and to Israel’s continued attacks and presence in Lebanon since a 2024 ceasefire deal — which Israel said came in response to ongoing violations.
Over 2,500 people have been killed and about a million displaced in Lebanon since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities. The IDF says it has killed over 1,900 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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