Hezbollah Activity in South Lebanon Since the 2nd Lebanon War The following declassified intelligence maps as well as the 3D animated clip illustrate how Hezbollah, in the four years since the Second Lebanon War, has turned over 100 villages in South Lebanon into military bases. These maps and the 3D clip illustrate how Hezbollah stores their weapons near schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in the village of al-Khiam. They follow similar tactics in villages across southern Lebanon, essentially using the residents as human shields, in gross violation of UN Resolution 1701. al-Khiam was used as a rocket launching site during the Second Lebanon war.
During the Second Lebanon war, Hezbollah stored their weapons in open areas for the most part, which enabled the IDF to locate and destroy their stores. In the four years since then, Hezbollah has pursued a tactic of moving their weapons into civilian villages, essentially institutionalizing the tactic of using human shields on a large scale.
This 3D animated clip of al-Khiam, a real village in southern Lebanon, illustrates how Hezbollah uses the civilian village to store weapons, thus effectively turning it into a military base. al-Khiam is just one of over 100 villages that Hezbollah uses in this manner.
In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Israel successfully targeted and destroyed much of Hezbollah’s weaponry (specifically rockets), since they stored it in open areas. In the four years since the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has employed the tactic of storing their weaponry inside villages – using the residents as human shields.
Essentially, what in 2006 was an ad hoc tactic, has now been institutionalized on an extensive scale across south Lebanon. This constitutes a systematic use of human shields at an unheard of level, and violates UN Resolution 1701.
In an incident on 12 October 2009, there was an explosion at a Hezbollah weapons storehouse in the village of Tayr Filsay. Aerial footage, taken shortly after the explosion, shows Hezbollah operatives closing down the area around the warehouse, driving in two trucks and removing weaponry from the site. They then took the weapons to a known weapons storage facility in the center of the village of Dir a-Nahar about four kilometers away. Only after Hezbollah removed the weaponry did they allow UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army to enter the site of the explosion.
Patrick Moser of AFP said in his report that,” Colonel Ronen Marley, an officer stationed along the border, was quoted in the Haaretz daily as saying around 90 Hezbollah militants were now operating in Al-Khiam, and an average of between 30 and 200 fighters were deployed in every Shiite village across the south.
Haaretz said publication of the military information sends Hezbollah “a clear warning of what it can expect to face if it starts a war, while preparing the international community for the measures the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is likely to take.”
Several Hezbollah officials in Lebanon declined to comment on the report, as did the Lebanese army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Israel estimates that Hezbollah has an arsenal of 40,000 short- and medium-range rockets, which are being held in towns and villages across the south — a significant rise from the 14,000 rockets held by the group in 2006.
It says the stockpile includes hundreds of longer-range rockets, some with a range of more than 300 kilometres (116 miles), capable of reaching major Israeli population centres.
The military believes Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon number 20,000, more than a third of whom have undergone combat training in Iran.”
