Israel Says Hizbullah, Iran Intensifying Missile Efforts in Lebanon

The Israeli army on Thursday accused Iran and Hizbullah of stepping up attempts to build precision-guided missile production facilities in Lebanon, saying these efforts are putting Lebanese civilians in danger.

The announcement comes at a time of rising tensions. In recent days, Israel has struck Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, and Hizbullah has accused Israel of a drone strike in Lebanon.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Thursday that Israel has detected an "intensified" effort by Iran and Hizbullah to establish missile-production facilities in Lebanon. He released the names of four officials, led by an Iranian brigadier general, allegedly leading the effort.

"Iran and Hizbullah are endangering Lebanon," he said.

Conricus estimated that Hizbullah currently has some 130,000 rockets, an arsenal he said does not by itself amount to "accurate" weaponry, even if such projectiles constitute a "threat."

"However if they are able to produce a precision-guided arsenal ... that will create a different and much more dangerous situation," he added.

Conricus accused Hizbullah of being "willing to strike civilians and strategic facilities... in order to create a massive amount of casualties and damage in Israel."

"Hezbollah does not yet have an industrial capability to manufacture precision guided missiles" but continues to work towards that goal, he added.

Hizbullah denies harboring missile factories. While the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah boasts about having highly accurate missiles, he denies that the group produces them.

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee meanwhile announced on Twitter that the alleged missile project is “threatening the foundations of the Lebanese state and is being run in total secrecy by Hizbullah,” warning that the suspected activity “might threaten the security, economic and social situations in Lebanon.”

“Between the years 2013-2015, and amid the civil war in Syria, Iran started attempts to transfer ready-to-use precision-guided missiles to the Hizbullah organization in Lebanon via Syrian territory,” Adraee tweeted.

“Most of these attempts were foiled through strikes attributed to Israel and Hizbullah failed to obtain those missiles,” the spokesman added.

“In light of Iran and Hizbullah’s failures in this regard, Iran decided in the year 2016 to introduce a crucial change in its modus operandi: instead of transferring complete missiles, it started transforming existing missiles to precision-guided missiles on Lebanese soil, through transferring precision technology material from Iran in addition to missiles from Syria,” Adraee added.

He claimed that recently Iran and Hizbullah have been seeking to “speed up the project of producing precision-guided missiles through an attempt to set up production and transformation plants in several regions in Lebanon.”

Adraee also said that “senior Hizbullah official Fouad Shukur, who is on the U.S. State Department’s list of wanted individuals,” and three Iranian generals are in charge of the alleged project.

Britain’s The Times newspaper had reported Tuesday that a suspected Israeli drone attack on a Hizbullah site in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles.”

The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation. The incident also came hours after Israel said it bombed Iranian posts in Syria to thwart a drone attack on northern Israel.

Nasrallah said two Hizbullah fighters were killed in Israel’s Syria strike, threatening a response from Lebanon. Israel has suggested that the two Lebanese young men who were killed in the raid were drone experts operating within Iran’s Quds Force under General Qassem Soleimani.

Israel did not claim responsibility for the drone attack in Hizbullah’s bastion in Beirut’s southern suburbs but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts."