It is astounding to contemplate the number of missiles hezbollah has stockpiled in southern Lebanon; the size, precision and quantity of which has not been seen before in any previous assault upon Israel. And all with the tacit approval of the Lebanese government. Only in saddam hussien's wildest gulf war dreams could something of this magnitude have happened.
How many? On August 2nd, USA Today reported that hezbollah had fired over 2,000 medium & short range missiles into Israel.
NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah rockets struck Israel in record numbers and deeper than ever Wednesday, pushing the three-week total over the 2,000 mark and killing a Boston-born man fleeing on his bicycle toward shelter.
The barrage, which followed a two-day lull, came despite the Israeli army chief's claim that the offensive in south Lebanon had eroded Hezbollah's firepower. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz also threatened to resume air raids against the Lebanese capital.
The army said more than 230 rockets had hit Israel by Wednesday night. The highest previous daily total was 166 on July 26.
How many? Today, August 6th, The Washington Times reports that hezbollah has fired an estimated 3,000 medium & short range rockets into Israel.
Hezbollah fired at least 170 rockets into northern Israel, killing three Israeli women in a single attack in a direct hit on the house they were in, police said.
Hezbollah has fired an estimated 3,000 rockets into northern Israel since fighting broke out July 12, the Israeli army said. Israel's military also said it had carried out at least 160 air strikes against Lebanon in the previous 36 hours.
More than three weeks of Israeli bombardments have been unable to stop the rocket attacks.
The Israeli military has stepped up its ground campaign, pushing its troops across all along the border in an attempt to force Hezbollah back.
Late yesterday, the Israeli air force dropped leaflets in the southern port of Sidon, between Tyre and Beirut, saying rockets had been fired from nearby and warning civilians to evacuate Lebanon's third-largest city and flee north ahead of retaliatory bombing.
The Weekly Standard gives a short history and inventory of hezbollah's lethal stockpile which is solely intended to threaten Israel.
Since the fighting began, Hezbollah has inflicted more damage on Israel than Saddam Hussein's Iraq was able to inflict on Kuwait during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Hezbollah has deployed a range of extremely sophisticated weapons against Israel. The most notable has been the Iranian C-802 Noor (Tondar) variant of the Chinese Silkworm missile that was used against an Israeli gunship off the Lebanese coast. Four Israeli sailors were killed, and the gunship was put out of commission.
The Associated Press reports that "Iran is believed to have supplied Hezbollah with up to 120 Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets, with ranges of 22 miles and 45 miles respectively," noting that it was a Fajr-3 that is
thought to have been responsible for an attack on Haifa that killed 8 civilians. More recently, Israeli military officials have sought to destroy sites in Lebanon believed to house long-range Zelzal missiles of Iranian manufacture that they suspect are capable of hitting Tel Aviv. And while early reports that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was responsible for the attack on the Israeli warship were inaccurate, Hezbollah is still assumed to possess several UAVs.
Nor is Iran Hezbollah's only source of weaponry. The New York Times quoted anonymous officials as saying that "some of the rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal--including a 220-millimeter rocket used in a deadly attack on a railway site in Haifa on Sunday--were built in Syria. . . . Officials have since confirmed that the warhead on the Syrian rocket was filled with ball bearings--a method of destruction used frequently in suicide bombings but not in warhead technology." An intelligence official was quoted in the article as saying, "We've never seen anything like this."
Given the apparent intelligence failure surrounding both Hezbollah's acquisition of this advanced weaponry and the willingness of Iran and Syria to supply it, the question whether the capabilities displayed to date by Hezbollah represent the full extent and scope of its arsenal may be worth raising.