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The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah is rebuilding its military arsenal on Israel’s northern border, as experts warn that another war between the two sides could be on the horizon. The latest developments come a year after the U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between the parties.
On Wednesday, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah had engaged “in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.” Shoshani also released a video showing the rearming, claiming the terror group was “operating to reestablish its assets in the village of Beit Lif.”
Critics argue that the U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, is not fulfilling its mandate to disarm the terror group and the Lebanese Armed Forces are moving too slowly, which has led to continued Israeli actions against the terrorists. The IDF has been launching near-daily strikes against the group’s infrastructure and operatives inside Lebanon.
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Hezbollah fighters attend the funeral of their commander Wissam al-Tawil, in the village of Khirbet Selm, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. A war of words that has unfolded in Lebanon show longstanding schisms in the small country over Hezbollah, now amplified by the militant group’s role in the Lebanon-Israel border clashes and by fears that an already crisis-hit Lebanon could be dragged into an all-out war. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
Sarit Zehavi, a leading Israeli security expert on Hezbollah from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, told Fox News Digital that Hezbollah does not currently “have the capability to carry out an October invasion. They had it prior to Oct. 7, 2023. They can send in a few terrorists. I want to believe it will take a few years to get those capabilities back.”
Fox News Digital exclusively reported last year on Hezbollah’s war plan to invade northern Israel and carry out a scorched-earth campaign against the Jewish state.
A day after the Iran-backed Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and massacred over 1,200 people, Hezbollah launched missile attacks against Israel.
A strike against Hezbollah that the Israeli Air Force says was carried out overnight. (Israeli Air Force)
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Zehavi said, “Both the IDF and Hezbollah are very active. The IDF is very active to stop the rehabilitation of Hezbollah and Hezbollah is very active in rebuilding. Hezbollah learned lessons. It has been more problematic to smuggle weapons to Lebanon from Syria. It is happening. But the Syrians intercepted weapons.”
She noted that the “Syrian regime is willing to fight Hezbollah to fight weapons smuggling. Hezbollah is relying more on manufacturing rockets.”
Zehavi, who lives in northern Israel, said that “almost half of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah are south of the Litani river. We see a lot of investment from Hezbollah in drones, short-range rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles.”
On Tuesday in Germany, prosecutors started a trial against an alleged Hezbollah member running “an extensive drone program for some time.”
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said the suspected Hezbollah operative Fadel Z joined Hezbollah more than 10 years ago and worked as a “foreign operator” for the group’s drone program in 2022 in Spain and Germany.
Zehavi said it suffered a defeat of its leadership via the Mossad pager attack on its commanders. However, she added, “Iran immediately provided oxygen to Hezbollah for treatment to help revive Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of four fallen comrades who were killed Tuesday after their handheld pagers exploded, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, Sept. 18. (Bilal Hussein/ AP)
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She outlined Israel’s main defense strategy against Hezbollah. First, the IDF has positions in Syria and Lebanon. “We cannot have civilians on the front line. The IDF is on top of hills in Israel and Lebanon and can see everything and can respond quickly to terrorist activities. This means when an Israeli woman opens her window and used to see a Hezbollah flag, she now sees an Israeli flag. This gives her a sense of security. This was not present before Oct. 7.
She estimates Hezbollah has 50,000 terrorists and 50,000 reservists. “We killed a few thousand terrorists.”
The IDF made dramatic advances in eradicating Hezbollah’s missile arsenal. “We degraded 80%” of the rockets, Zehavi said, noting the elimination of sizable numbers of Hezbollah’s long-range and highly accurate missiles.
Edy Cohen, a Lebanese-born Israeli scholar of Hezbollah, said, “There is no lack of arms for Hezbollah in Beirut and Lebanon. Lately, we saw many reports that Hezbollah received arms from Syria and Iran is trying to send arms by civilian Iranian airplanes.”
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters are taking part in cross-border raids, part of a large-scale military exercise, in Aaramta bordering Israel on May 21, 2023 ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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He said there is enormous pressure on Hezbollah and every week Israel is killing Hezbollah operative. The Shiite community in Lebanon wants Hezbollah to retaliate against Israel, said Cohen, adding, “For the Shiite community Hezbollah is the state.”
Cohen said the IDF is gathering intelligence information about Hezbollah’s arsenal and attacking almost every day its leaders and operatives.
Hezbollah terrorists are taking part in cross-border raids, part of a large-scale military exercise, in Aaramta, bordering Israel, on May 21, 2023 ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Image)
He warned that because “Hezbollah said it will not disarm its militia … the big war will come.”
Fox News Digital reported in early November that Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, who also serves as envoy to Syria, said that Lebanon is a “failed state,” because of its “paralyzed government.”
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He also noted that Hezbollah retains 40,000 fighters and between 15,000 and 20,000 rockets and missiles, noting the terror group pays its militia $2,200 per month, whereas the Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers earn $275 a month and have inferior equipment as well.