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Israel warns UN that Hezbollah has more missiles than EU NATO states
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) has warned that ten years after the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has drastically increased its missile arsenal, imbedded within civilian areas of southern Lebanon.
Danny Danon told the UN Security Council that when it approved Resolution 1701 in 2006, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah was in possession of around 7,000 missiles. Although the resolution calls for “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon,” Danon said that Israel believes Hezbollah now possesses around 120,000 rockets. Putting Hezbollah’s missile threat into context, Danon said that the terror group has “more missiles below ground in Lebanon than the European NATO allies have above ground”.
Danon also provided photographic evidence, which showed that Hezbollah has positioned rocket launchers, ammunition and infantry positions within the village of Shaqra in southern Lebanon. He said that Hezbollah is guilty of a “double war crime,” as “not only are they attacking Israeli civilians, but they are using Lebanese civilians as human shields to defend their terror activity”.
Danon added that at the end of the Second Lebanon War, “this Council pledged that Hezbollah would no longer be allowed to threaten Israel and hold the people of Lebanon hostage” and that consequently: “We demand the removal of Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon.”
In a letter to troops this week to mark the anniversary, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said: “The threat from Lebanon still exists and contains many challenges, and necessitates the [Israeli military] to be prepared for any scenario.”
Israel is marking a decade since the Second Lebanon War, which saw 160 Israelis and around 1,200 Lebanese killed in a month-long conflict sparked by Hezbollah’s kidnapping of two Israeli reservists on the Lebanese border. Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel and the subsequent Israeli ground operation was criticised by an official Israeli inquiry following the war, as it was deemed to have failed to reach its objectives.