A Knife in Hezbollah's Heart

Op-ed: In past two years, several Hezbollah arms depots were hit by mysterious explosions

Ronen Bergman

Published:  11.24.11, 12:20 / Israel Opinion

The explosion at Hezbollah’s arms depot Wednesday evening is yet another link in the chain of astounding mishaps that have been occurring in the organization’s soft underbelly.
One of Israel’s (only) achievements in its humiliating defeat in the Second Lebanon War was the United Nation Security Council Resolution 1701, whereby Hezbollah must not deploy armed forces or set up military equipment warehouses in the south of the country. This is precisely the ruling which the organization seeks to water down.

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Hezbollah does not do this openly. Hassan Nasrallah declares that his group adheres to international law, and the organization has indeed complied with it in respect to Hezbollah’s outposts on the border with Israel. However, the opposite is true in respect to the reestablishment of arms depots.
One of Hezbollah’s main lessons following its success in the 2006 war was the establishment of as many arms depots as possible in urban areas and in non-residential regions. As result of this combat doctrine, Hezbollah is attempting to rebuild its weapons depots, under the noses of UNIFIL and with the quiet backing of the Lebanese army. This is being done as part of the preparations for the Third Lebanon War.
Israel, which invests great intelligence resources in Lebanon, is seeing this and is becoming infuriated. The Israeli aircraft that hover across Lebanon record, day after day, Hezbollah’s military buildup; however, as they adhere to the ceasefire, these aircraft cannot target the arms deliveries, which mostly arrive from Syria.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL forces are failing to detect these shipments and cannot, or do not want to, operate against them in a strict fashion.
Israel, which wishes to prove its claims, published about a year ago the intelligence files of some Lebanese villages; the photos prove the scope of the weapons being stored there.

Simultaneously, in the past two years, some of these arms depots started to explode under mysterious circumstances, like a knife in Hezbollah’s heart.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua