Map Shows almost 1,000 Hezbollah Rocket and Missile Sites across Southern Lebanon.
Israeli map details storage and other facilities in south Lebanon.
Sites installed in civilian areas to “take advantage” of Lebanese.
Hezbollah has 40,000 weapons, three times the number since 2006
With Syria’s help, Iran-backed Hezbollah has created a network of 1,000 facilities and amassed more than 40,000 weapons in villages across southern Lebanon during the last five years, according to a map Israel released Thursday (March 31). Many of the sites – including bunkers and storage houses – are situated near hospitals, homes and schools.
The Hezbollah sites include 550 bunkers, 300 monitoring sites and 100 weapons storage units, according to a communiqué by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The stockpiled weapons – three times the number Hezbollah had when it launched an unprovoked attack on Israel in July 2006 – include missiles that can reach as far as Tel Aviv.
Placing its weapons and other facilities in civilian areas is “Hezbollah’s way of taking advantage of the civilian population of Lebanon,” the IDF statement said.
Hezbollah’s build-up is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted to put an end to the war that began when Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets and missiles on Israel after it ambushed IDF soldiers patrolling the Israeli side of the Lebanese-Israeli border. Three Israeli soldiers were killed and two kidnapped, sparking Israel’s defensive war against Hezbollah – also known as the Second Lebanon War. Hezbollah later returned the two kidnapped soldiers, dead, as part of a swap for prisoners in Israel.
Hezbollah leaders have declined to say whether Israel’s report is true.
Israeli released the map and details to The Washington Post Thursday "to show the world that the Hezbollah organization has turned these villages into fighting zones."
In Washington, the U.S. State Department responded to the report by saying, "Our concern about Hezbollah’s activities, including in south Lebanon, is well known. It is logical that Israel shares this concern."