Israel Matzav

Hezbullah retaking positions in southern Lebanon

DEBKAfile is reporting that Hezbullah is going right back to where it started from: to its series of underground bunkers and tunnels in southern Lebanon:

The UN peacekeeping and Lebanese army presence has not stopped Hizballah from systematically retaking and re-manning its old tunnel and fortified bunker locations in South Lebanon. They are designated “nature preserves” by the IDF. Nor, say our military sources, did they prevent Syria over last weekend smuggling across a first consignment of medium-range Fajr-3 (45km range) and Fajr-5 (up to 100 km range) rockets – the ones Hizballah used in the Lebanon War to blast in-depth Israeli targets: Haifa, Tiberias, Afula and the Hadera-Caesaria district.

IDF intelligence estimates the consignment was small, designed to test Israeli military and UN responses. It was accompanied by a vigorous campaign launched by Hizballah’s friends in Beirut against Israel’s surveillance over-flights, thanks to which the consignment was discovered. These airborne cameras have also picked up quantities of rockets and launchers of all types including the Iranian Zelzal waiting on the Syrian side of the border to be smuggled across to Hizballah.

DEBKAfile has obtained a list of the S. Lebanese villages playing host to re-armed Hizballah positions along the Israeli border:

Kfar Kila, opposite the northernmost Israeli town of Metullah; Adissa and Markaba opposite Ramim, Hola and Mais al Jabel opposite the Israel’s northern highway, Itron opposite Kibbutz Malkia, Maruan a Ras opposite Yiron, and Raimish and Ait al-Shaab opposite the Western Galilee highway.

My guess is that by the spring, we will be at war in Lebanon again.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:19 AM