Hizbullah will likely fire close to 800 rockets into Israel every day during a future war, senior IDF officers said on Wednesday, as the Northern Command declassified for the first time evidence of Hizbullah’s growing presence inside close to 160 villages throughout southern Lebanon.
Using the village of el-Khiam – located about 4 km. north of the border – as an example, the IDF showed extensive footage, videos and maps of homes that Hizbullah has taken over and used to store weapons caches and establish command-and-control centers.
The declassified material also revealed the location of improvised explosive devices, some of them weighing up to half a ton, which Hizbullah has positioned, mostly at the entrance to the village.
The IDF recently dispatched a delegation to UN headquarters in New York to present the evidence to diplomats. The evidence was also presented to the new commander of UNIFIL, Maj.-Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas of Spain.
“We see Hizbullah’s grip inside the villages and we view an infiltration into Israel as the primary threat,” Col. Ronen Moreli, commander of Brigade 300, told reporters.
Hizbullah is believed to have established thousands of positions inside approximately 160 villages in southern Lebanon. Most of Hizbullah’s rockets have ranges under 100 km. but the group is believed to have long-range missiles – some of them the Syrian-made M600 – which have a range of about 300 km. and unprecedented accuracy.
