The Israeli military has published a series of aerial photographs of south Lebanon showing what it says are hundreds of Hezbollah weapons stores in towns and villages near the border.
Declassified Images and intelligence maps appear to show what the military says are dozens of bunkers and arms caches.
In one aerial photograph of Al-Khiam, several kilometers north of the Israeli border town of Metulla, a heavily marked up image shows 11 buildings in the middle of the village’s built-up area that the military says are being used as hiding places for weapons. Another four buildings are marked as bunkers and operational headquarters for the Shiite militant group.
Also marked on the Al-Khiam map posted on the army’s Web site are schools, hospitals and other public buildings some of which lie just a few hundred meters from the alleged weapons caches.
The army says the images demonstrate how, in the four years since Israel’s 34-day war with Lebanon, Hezbollah has transformed more than 100 villages near the border into military bases.
“These maps and the 3D clip illustrate how Hezbollah stores their weapons near schools, hospitals and residential buildings in the village of Al-Khiam,” an army statement said.
“They follow similar tactics in villages across southern Lebanon, essentially using the residents as human shields in gross violation of UN Resolution 1701,” it said, referring to the truce resolution that ended the 2006 war.
The army said the data appeared to show a shift in tactics.
“In the four years since then, Hezbollah has pursued a tactic of moving their weapons into civilian villages, essentially institutionalizing the tactic of using human shields on a large scale,” the military said.
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
RSS