Israel finds large stockpiles of Russian weapons in Hezbollah warehouses

Illustrative photo from open sources

Israel has discovered Russian weapons in Hezbollah warehouses in southern Lebanon. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.

This, as the newspaper notes, “confirms Israel's long-standing suspicions that Hezbollah is strengthening its combat potential with the help of modern Russian weapons.”

— Some of the weapons, including advanced Kornet anti-tank missiles produced in 2020, were sent to southern Lebanon in recent years from Russian warehouses in neighboring Syria, the publication writes, citing Syrian and Arab officials.

Russia has long supplied weapons to the Syrian military and also controls its own warehouses in the country.

While Israeli military leaders knew that Hezbollah had some Russian-made weapons, their inability to gain access to parts of southern Lebanon after the 2006 war with Hezbollah prevented them from learning the full extent of the militant group's capabilities., – the WSJ notes.

The Russian weapons Hezbollah has had have generally been less sophisticated, with some dating back to the Soviet era.

But the weapons Israel is now finding are newer, more sophisticated, and more numerous than military analysts expected, the WSJ notes. They say the weapons have greatly bolstered Hezbollah's ability to fight back after Israeli airstrikes killed its top leadership. Anti-tank weapons like the Kornet were among the most effective in Hezbollah's arsenal. and was used to kill many Israeli soldiers.

The weapons also raised concerns in Israel that Russia may be deepening its ties with Hezbollah, despite Moscow's long-standing assurances that it does not take sides in conflicts between Israel and its neighbors.

By Sergei Daga