Hezbollah is constantly expanding its military capabilities and becoming more dangerous to Israel, Lebanese media reports.
The Lebanese press recently resumed reporting about the Hezbollah terror group’s military activities on Israel’s northern border as well as on the organization’s growing strength in recent years, especially due to its military involvement in the Syrian civil war.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) cites a Lebanese report that Hezbollah has tunnels on the Israeli border and that it possesses advanced weapons provided by Iran and Syria, which disrupt the balance of power vis-à-vis Israel.
Despite Israeli airstrikes, hundreds of convoys transported advanced weapons to Hezbollah from Syria, and now the terror group has ‘game-changing’ weapons on the Syria-Israel border, the Al-Akhbar daily reported in January. Hezbollah’s military, security and intelligence capabilities have grown in the recent years, the pro-Hezbollah news site wrote.
The report adds that Hezbollah is cooperating with Hamas’s military wing, the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.
It also implies that an Israeli assessment that Hezbollah is capable of firing 1,500 missiles a day underestimates the organization’s true capabilities. Hezbollah’s transformation into a major player in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and its considerable influence in other sensitive locations in the Arab and Muslim world contributed to its growing strength.
“The enemy [Israel] has failed in his vigorous efforts to change the rules of the confrontation with the resistance [Hezbollah] along the border front. [Israel’s] targeted killings of senior resistance operatives compelled Hezbollah’s leadership to [present a] scale of increasingly harsh retaliatory measures, up to and including readiness to enter an all-out confrontation. This forced the enemy to avoid direct military action on Lebanese soil, including localized operations,” the report claimed.
Forward Positions on Israel’s Border
The Al-Mustaqbal daily reported in January that Hezbollah has forward positions on the border with Israel, including tunnels running into the country, especially near the northern Israeli towns of Shlomi and Nahariya.
The Lebanese daily, owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’d Al-Hariri, a prominent political rival of Hezbollah, indicated in its report that Hezbollah operates south of the Litani River, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
UNSC Resolution 1701 was passed in 2006 at the conclusion of the Second Lebanon War. It called for a full cessation of hostilities, a withdrawal by Hezbollah to behind the Litani River (Blue Line) and for the government of Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to deploy their forces in the South. The resolution has been breached by Hezbollah on multiple occasions.
