A new report by the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center has revealed a massive missile build up by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group along Israel’s border with Syria and Lebanon.
As journalist Seth Frantzman points out, the Hamas firing of thousands of mostly unguided rockets could be Iran testing Israel’s defense systems for a possible attack by Hezbollah later:
The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist militia has acquired a vast array of advanced Iranian and Russian-made missiles and weapon systems and is deploying them along Israel’s northern border, the report disclosed.
Hezbollah, armed with the latest Iranian missiles and weaponry, could pose an even greater threat to the state of Israel than Gaza-based jihadist Hamas. “In the next escalation, Hezbollah intends to operate these arrays in full force, with an emphasis on the surface-to-surface missile/rocket array,” the report said.
One of the emerging threat is the terrorist group’s Iran-backed precision missile program. “Hezbollah has the capability to precisely strike strategic targets throughout Israel,” the report warned.
The report once again highlighted Iranian proxy terrorist militia’s tactic of using Arab civilians as human shields. “Under Iran’s auspices, Hezbollah continues to promote the precision missile project and uses Lebanon’s civilian population as a human shield to protect this project,” the document added.
Following are the excerpts from the 20-page report reviewed by Legal Insurrection (access the full report from the Alma website here).
Hezbollah has a very large number of missile launchers, some mobile and some stationary, allowing it the ability to launch its missiles repetitively. Hezbollah has an estimated capability of firing up to 2,000 missiles and rockets in one day.The current estimate asserts that there are several thousand-missile launchers of all types. The short-range missile launchers allow the simultaneous and multiple firing of rocket salvos.These missile launchers are deployed throughout Lebanon, particularly in the area of southern Lebanon, which is considered the frontier with Israel; it is from this area that most of the shortrange missiles will be launched towards Israel.
A large number of the missile launchers in southern Lebanon are stationary launchers, concealed within the civilian population, using them as human shields with the intention of preventing an Israeli attack on these arrays.The missile launchers are located in villages, plantations and agricultural areas, hidden inside buildings and installed with hydraulic mechanisms enabling the rooftop to open upon the launching of the missiles from within. Other missile launchers are concealed underground and are shrouded with camouflage. When activated remotely; the camouflage cover opens automatically; the missiles emerge and launch towards the pre-destined target.
Weapons smuggled into Lebanon by air, sea and land mainly from Iran and Syria. From Iran they come through the three routes and from Syria they come via the land. Sometimes the arrival of the weapons is done in a combination of the routes. The integration is usually carried out on flights carrying weapons from Iran to Syria and from Syria the weapons are transported by land to Lebanon.Beginning in 2013, under the auspices of the Syrian civil war, Iran began delivering precision-Iranian missiles through the “land corridor” from Iran to Syria, with Hezbollah in Lebanon being the final destination. The responsibility for implementing the transfer of the missiles was assigned to the Lebanese corps of the Quds Force, which is subordinate to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). This effort lasted for about two years, until the year 2015, when the vast majority of consignments were thwarted by air force activity.In light of the failure, Iran decided to change its modus operandi, and in 2016, began to upgrade local Syrian manufactured missiles at the SARS Institute. However, most attempts to transfer these missiles from Syrian soil to Lebanese soil destined for Hezbollah were also thwarted. In 2018 there was a change in the Iranian perception, determining that the manufacturing precision missile installations would be transferred to Lebanese soil on the assumption that Israel would not attack them. The “raw materials” for the project were transported via the aforementioned three routes: the land corridor, the maritime route and by air (for example, via direct “civilian” flights from Iran to Beirut).
Hezbollah’s intense involvement in the Syrian civil war has enabled it access to many types of weapons, including advanced Russian-made weapons from Syrian army weapons depots. Achieving accessibility also to anti-aircraft artillery arrays. Hezbollah may have trained on the SA17 and SA22 air-defense artillery batteries in Syria and these batteries may have found their way into Lebanon.
The finding of the report released on May 6 have gained urgency in the wake of this week’s murderous rocket offensive launched from Hamas-held Gaza. In the latest Palestinian escalation, terrorist groups have shown their capability of hitting targets beyond southern Israel. They fired more than 2,541 rockets aimed at Israeli towns and cities, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, killing 10 Israelis and wounding over 1,500.
On Friday, the Israeli military reportedly killed an Hezbollah terrorist in a counterstrike after three rockets were fired into Israel from Hezbollah-held southern Lebanon. “Three missiles were fired at Israel from Syria Friday evening, hours after the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group said one of its members was killed by Israeli fire during a donnybrook on the border,” the Times of Israel reported.
The Israeli military is well aware of the Iran-Hezbollah axis ramping up its terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon and Syria. In recent months, the Israeli air force has repeatedly struck terrorist targets in the north.
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