Beirut explosion highlights danger of Hezbollah’s guided munitions

AUGUST 5, 2020 23:03

In recent years Hezbollah has been acquiring precision-guided munitions which make the terrorist group’s arsenal of 150,000 missiles more dangerous. The massive explosion in Beirut that has affected hundreds of thousands of people, which injured thousands and likely killed hundreds, now reveals how dangerous precision guided weapons could be in the wrong hands. This threat was made more serious by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s own comments in 2016 and 2017 when he threatened to target sensitive facilities in Israel where he claimed Israel stores gas or ammonium nitrate.

Hezbollah not only has sought to upgrade its rockets with precision guidance to target Israel’s critical infrastructure, but it has placed rocket launch sites in Beirut, according to recent reports. Hezbollah also has a special terminal at the Beirut Port where is regularly unloads weapons that are shipped to Lebanon from Iran, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The containers with the weapons are unloaded by Hezbollah operatives and do not undergo customs inspections like regular cargo. The weapons are then stored for periods of time at the port before they are distributed to Hezbollah bases and storage centers across the country. The dangerous munitions, combined with Hezbollah’s threats to use precision guided missiles against Israel may not be linked to the tragic explosion in Beirut but they reveal the danger Hezbollah poses to Israel and how dangerous Hezbollah’s munitions can be to civilian areas.