Hezbollah Threatens To Surprise Israel In Next War/حزب الله يهدد بأنه سيفاجئ في في أي حرب مقبلة Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/July 13/17
French report releases new and alarming details on underground weapons facilities the Shi’ite terror group operates in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has vowed to “surprise Israel” during any upcoming conflict, upping the war of words between the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group and Israel.
The most recent threat came directly from the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine in an interview yesterday with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar television channel. Safieddine said that the group has been changing and developing new military capabilities as both Israel and Lebanon mark 11 years since the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.
Safieddine, who oversees Hezbollah’s social and economic activities and was added to the United States counter-terrorism blacklist in March, said that Israeli reports on Hezbollah weaponry are “inaccurate as the enemy intelligence agencies can never reach veracious data in this context.”
Israel fought against Hezbollah in war that lasted 34 days in 2006. Since then, hostilities between the two countries have been limited to occasional cross-border fire and reported airstrikes by Israel against Hezbollah leaders and military equipment in Syria, where the group is fighting in support of President Bashar Assad.
Last week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said that the IDF has used the time since the Second Lebanon War to dramatically improve its abilities and now has better intelligence and operational capabilities than ever before.
According to Eisenkot, Hezbollah’s rockets are not particularly accurate at the moment and Israelis “should put things in perspective and not panic” regarding reports that Iran has helped Hezbollah to operate and manage underground weapons factories.
Speaking to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, Eisenkot said that “decreasing Iranian influence in the areas near Israel’s borders is no less important than defeating Islamic State, and for Israel perhaps even more.”
Hezbollah says future Israel war could draw more fighters than in 2006
Last March, the Kuwaiti Al Jarida newspaper cited an unnamed deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying that Hezbollah has operated and managed underground weapons factories set up by the IRGC in response to alleged Israeli strikes against weapons convoys in Syria.
According to the report, the factories can produce missiles with a range of over 500 kilometers as well as surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles able to carry explosives.
A recent report by the French Intelligence Online magazine identified the locations of two of the factories as well as the type of munitions they produce. The report said that one underground facility located near Hermel in northeastern Lebanon produces the Fateh 110 rocket which can carry half-ton warheads and are relatively accurate with a range of 300 kilometers, covering the majority of Israel.
The second facility, located near the Mediterranean coast between the cities of Tyre and Sidon in southern Lebanon, manufactures smaller munitions. At a briefing with journalists last week, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned that the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah was a red-line for Israel, who will continue to act to prevent the group from obtaining them.
