IDF concerned crisis in Lebanon could have repercussions along the border

JULY 15, 2021 11:54

With the Lebanese economy in a free-fall, the IDF is concerned that there may be an increase of incidents such as drug smuggling and infiltrations of migrant workers or refugees along its northern border.

“The Lebanese economy is not good, and that can lead to things happening on the border,” Col. Raz Haimlich, Commander of the Artillery Corps Fire Brigade 411th “Keren” Battalion told The Jerusalem Post. 

“I’m always ready for something to happen…whether it’s drugs being smuggled or people infiltrating looking for work. I think the work that the IDF is doing will stop people from trying to smuggle.

But, he stressed, “it can go either way.”

On Friday troops under his command helped thwart an attempt to smuggle 43 pistols and ammunition from Lebanon near the cross-border village of Ghajar. According to Haimlich, it was one of  the largest smuggling attempts in years and was estimated to value NIS 2.7 million (approximately $820,000).

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IDF artillery on the northern border with Lebanon, July 15, 2021. (Credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

“It was the largest smuggling attempt and we can see that it could be connected to the economic collapse of Lebanon,” he said.

While smuggling on the border has been going on for years, the last attempt was worth “a lot of money.”

Lebanon is currently suffering from an economic crisis that the World Bank says is one of the world’s worst financial crises since the 1850s with violence and protests breaking out around the country as basic services collapse.

According to a recent assessment released by UNICEF, 77% of Lebanese households don’t have enough money to buy food. The country’s medicine importers have warned that they have run out of hundreds of essential drugs and electricity outages and gas shortages are commonplace.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that UNICEF has starting giving cash handouts in US dollars to the families of some 70,000 Lebanese, Syria and Palestinian children to children at risk of “child labour, early marriage or exclusion from schooling” due to the crisis.

The Lebanese Armed Force is also feeling the economic crisis with troops earning between $400-500 a month. The LAF has even announced it is offering tourists helicopter rides for $150 dollars in order to make money.

The military has seen a concerning connection between criminal networks and terror in the smuggling of drugs and weapons into Israel from south Lebanon.

With the situation in Lebanon continuing to deteriorate, there have been a number of migrant workers infiltrating into Israel including in June when two Turkish men succeeded in crossing the border and were only caught 11 hours later.

Haimlich’s battalion has responded to several incidents along the Lebanese border, sometimes with artillery fire, including in mid-May during Operation Guardian of the Walls when a number of Lebanese rioters damaged the border fence and crossed into Israel near the community of Metula.

IDF along the northern border between Israel and Lebanon. (Credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

Last Friday his troops launched flares and scanned the area after suspicious movement was detected. The suspects were identified using “various means, both over and covert,” the army said at the time.

An investigation into the drug smuggling incident is being investigated by the Israel Police and according to the military, the possibility that the smuggling attempt was carried out with help of Hezbollah is also being looked into.

And while Haimlich stressed that the situation in Lebanon is “complicated” and that he could not say with full certainty that Hezbollah was behind the smuggling, “the IDF’s intelligence is very precise and knows who is behind the attempt.”

“Hezbollah is not dumb, and because of that we are always looking at smuggling attempts as possible terror attacks. Our fight against Hezbollah is our central issue,” he said.

In addition to stopping the smuggling of drugs and weapons as well as thwarting infiltration attempts, “we are ready to fight, and for terror attacks. That’s what we do as an army.”

IDF artillery on the northern border between Israel and Lebanon, July 15, 2021. (Credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

Both weapons and drugs have been smuggled into Israel from its northern border, with some of the weapons having been used in terror attacks in Israel.

Though Hezbollah receives significant financial aid by supporters who live abroad as well as through charities, the group relies on a wide variety of criminal activities such as money laundering through shell companies, fraud, the drug, arms, and blood diamond trade.

The group also relies on a network of criminal and narcotic rings across the globe, such as in Lebanon, Africa, Asia as well as both North and South America.

At least five significant drug and weapon smuggling attempts have been thwarted since the beginning of the year by the IDF and Israel Police.

In February, 12 kilograms of drugs were seized in the area of Dovev and one suspect was arrested in Israel; in early April, two pistols and two kilograms of drugs were seized in the area of Metula with several suspects arrested; in early June, 15 pistols, dozens of cartridges and 36 kilograms of drugs were seized and a number of suspects arrested; in mid-June, 12 pistols were seized in the area of Metula and one suspect arrested in Israel.

The IDF said that it believes that Hajj Khalil Harb, a top Hezbollah official, is operating a drug and weapons smuggling operation over the border between Israel and Lebanon and could be behind the smuggling attempt that was thwarted on Friday as well as the smuggling attempt in the beginning of June where 15 pistols and tens of kilograms of cannabis worth NIS 2,000,000 were seized.