Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Hezbollah is restocking rockets, anti-tank guided missiles, and artillery, increasing the chances of renewed conflict with Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 31, citing sources familiar with Israeli and Arab intelligence on the matter.
The sources told the newspaper that Hezbollah is rearming by smuggling weapons through seaports in Lebanon, as well as smuggling routes through Syria, leading Israel to lose patience with the Lebanese government over its commitment to disarm the group.
The Lebanese government from its side passed a message to Israel through mediators asking it to have patience with their efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and said they are open to expanding cooperation on the matter, according to the sources.
Israel has been launching strikes against Hezbollah on a regular basis since a ceasefire brokered by the United States came into effect last November, citing “violations” by the group.
In August, the Lebanese government approved a plan to disarm Hezbollah in line with a proposal presented by the U.S. And in September, the government announced that it has begun to implement the plan. Hezbollah, however, rejected any talk of disarmament.
The WSJ report came right after Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said that the country was preparing for a military escalation in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s efforts to bolster its capabilities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a brief security session on October 30 to discuss developments in Lebanon.
An unnamed senior Israeli official told the broadcaster that “Hezbollah has partially succeeded in rebuilding its military infrastructure,” describing this as a “direct violation of the existing security agreement with Lebanon.”
Other Israeli sources claimed that Hezbollah “smuggled hundreds of short-range rockets from Syria into Lebanon in recent months” and is attempting to rebuild its leadership structures.
Israel has already escalated strikes against Hezbollah. On October 31, Ibrahim Muhammad Raslan, alleged member of the group, was killed in a drone strike in the town of Kounine in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said that the man was a maintenance officer involved in restoring the group’s infrastructure.
Despite all the escalation, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem renewed commitment to the group’s general political line during his latest speech.
Qassem accused the U.S. of fueling “Israeli aggression” in Lebanon, saying that Washington presents itself as a mediator while working to undermine the country’s sovereignty.
“America has given Lebanon nothing and justifies violations,” Qassem said at an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs on October 31, accusing the United States of exerting political pressure on Lebanon.
“Every piece of land in Lebanon is Lebanon. No land belongs to one sect over another… this land belongs to all of us,” he added.
Qassem praised President Joseph Aoun’s order for the military to confront Israeli incursions, calling it a “responsible stance” that deserves national backing. He also urged the government to strengthen the military to better counter Israel, describing resistance as a “national, not partisan, duty.”
Since a ceasefire came into effect in the Gaza Strip earlier in the month, it became clear that Israel will shift focus back to Lebanon.
All recent reports accusing Hezbollah of rearming, whether from Western, Hebrew or Arab media, are clearly meant to justify a new Israeli attack on the group. Israel always favored going to war in Lebanon in good weather conditions, thus it could attack very soon.
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dear hezbollah, you suck. your entire leadership was taken out by pagers that the idf detonated. gaza was genocided and you hid in your holes in the ground. no one respects you. you are all retarded faggots whose balls have dropped off.
dear fake fuck,
nazis, zionists, satanists and the kind of you who eat their shit, always succeed at first, because they attack cowardly and dastardly. you succeed because you betray the trust people set in you, thinking you are human.
but after realising your true color, you will be expunged like hitler and other wannabees. look how ukraine is going with its provocation of russisa. first they made big show, now they don’t want any show at all. and don’t eat too much propaganda shit.
opposite is true. putin stormed forward, heinously raided ukraine cowardly and bastardly, after guaranting the politcal probems with ukraine will of course not be reason for military invasion. laughable western fear of aggressive ru, as russia is peaceful country and would never invade foreign country blah blah. liar ! and now that he is stuck in ukraine quagmare, he starts complaining about the “evil west” helping ukraine to kick ru out of ukraine.
you are uninformed,
never forget may 2 2014 when the west killed innocent people in maidan. i saw pictures of pregnant woman beastly tortured before killed.
before that ukraine rejected eu offers to join them. west funded nazi groups and made violently regime changes.
nazis began hunting russian civilists, worse that hitler. western military provocated russia. western generals, who confirmed western provocation, released. still now pro ukrainian people openly deklares that all russians must be killed. thus is the foundation of western logic
have patient boy lets israel attack again what is wating this time u dont even know and niether israeli scum. this time more body bags are prepared for zionist thief
begin working at home with google! it’s by a wide margin the best occupation i’ve had. last wednesday i got a fresh out of the box new bmw since getting a check for $13474 this – a month past. i started this 8-months prior and promptly 3 was bringing home at any rate $every hour. i work through this connection, go to tech tab for work detail… 𝙒𝙬𝙬.𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙥𝙖𝙮1.𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚
be sure of one thing, before it’s over damascus will be reduced to uninhabitable rubble.
whole world will, untilbthe world realize that zionists are the parasites who destroy zivilisation.
this white israel settlers re used by usa,britain and france to rob and steal arab oil and gas including mineral resources.
after syria fall israel infiltrated and destroy hezbollah command then do the same to iran were their were surprise.when critics question russian friendship military support putin lied iran refuses while he ditches missile defense shields to nato turkey and india western puppet modi.
israel will have to physically drag the hezbollans out of their hideytunnels, just like the hamasians. thumpety clubbity thumpety clubbity etc. physically beat the crap out of them and give them permanent brain damage and hand em over to the lebanese govt. and implode their tunnels. sad, but stupid people never learn.
why would you show a picture of planes in the article of a nation that has none? show drones and missiles cause thats what they will get.