Middle East Update

In a counter to Israeli war games conducted last week, Hizbullah just staged military maneuvers in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Monday. The maneuvers involved thousands of unarmed fighters, and reportedly were personally supervised by Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah over the last three days, November [...]

Shots fired at Israeli overflights
The Lebanese army has increased its alert status over the past 24 hours in response to unusual IAF flyovers, Israel Radio reported on Friday. The IAF apparently carried out maneuvers over southern Lebanon on Thursday November 1, and the Lebanese daily Asharq Al-Awsat is reporting that the Lebanese army responded with [...]

Barak Ravid (Ha’aretz)
Hizbullah has tripled its arsenal of C-802 land-to-sea missiles and has rehabilitated its strength north of the Litani River, according to information handed over by Israel to the UN and published in a UN report.

Syria supplying Shi’ite militia with weapons
A new report to the United Nations Security Council on southern Lebanon shows that Hizbullah has “rebuilt and even increased its military capacity,” to a level higher than before the Second Lebanon War.

UNIFIL: Routine flyovers ‘build sympathy for Hizbullah’
Lebanese air force units shot at two IAF fighter jets on Thursday October 25, as they flew low over south Lebanon.

More than a year after the Israel-Hizbullah war, Hizbullah appears to be solidly entrenched across Lebanon’s south - looking, in fact, as if its fighters never really left but merely went underground. The Shiite militia’s banners hang everywhere, boasting of the “divine victory” over Israel and thanking its chief sponsor, Iran, for helping with post-war [...]

Yaakov Katz
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week that Hizbullah has significantly increased its supply of long-range missiles and short-range rockets to some 20,000 today. Hizbullah has basically rebuilt itself and is continuing to receive large amounts of weapons, including advanced anti-tank missiles, from Syria. The IDF Northern [...]

Arab intelligence sources claim to have uncovered a recent plot to assassinate Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, reports Infolive.tv. Those accused of involvement in the plot include the United States, Israel, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, and Gulf Arab states. The sources claim the assassination was intended to deal a blow to growing Shiite influence in the [...]

Israel is concerned Iran will give its newly delivered Russian anti-ship missile, the Yakhont, to Syria which in turn will pass it to Hizbullah. Defense authorities believe that if the missile is transferred it will target the Israel Navy in future warfare. The SSN-X-26 Yakhont is a multifaceted radar guided missile launched from shore to [...]

Amir Oren
The IDF senior command held a workshop this week , August 22, on the army’s five-year plan. The IDF will be preparing for the following scenarios in the next five years: thwarting the danger of a hostile country that does not border on Israel achieving nuclear capability (Iran, in particular), a war with Syria, [...]