Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Last week, Israeli commandos seized a ship in the Mediterranean loaded with almost 400 tonnes of rockets and small arms — which Israel claimed was being sent from Iran to its Hezbollah allies. In dramatic further evidence of growing tensions, Hezbollah fighters have been busy reinforcing fixed defense positions north of the Litani River.
Hezbollah is preparing a new strategy to defend villages there.
Although the organization denied last week that the weapons were intended for its use, senior commanders have done little to disguise the scale of rearmament.
“Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006,” said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after an ill-advised operation by to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, prompting a massive response that lasted 34 days and killed more than 1,000 people.
“We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south. We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn’t too soft for their tanks,” the commander said.
It was expected that the ceasefire would neutralize Hezbollah military efforts along the Lebanon-Israel border, as a newly bolstered UN peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army took up positions. Instead, based on dozens of interviews and multiple trips into the country’s south, it is clear that Hezbollah believes it would face different challenges.
It has been forced to abandon the line of deeply entrenched positions on the border with Israel and withdraw most of its men and weaponry to clusters of Shiite villages.
“It’s clear that Hezbollah no longer controls the border, due to the presence of UNIFIL [UN Interim Force in Lebanon] troops,” said Andrew Exum, a military expert on Hezbollah at the Center for New American Security. “They appear to be hardening the villages for this next round of fighting, while pushing their fixed positions north.”
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