What remains of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal? - Region

Al-Ahram Weekly

2 days ago

Hezbollah, which Lebanon plans to disarm by year's end, had a formidable arsenal before war with Israel severely weakened the Iran-backed militant group last year.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in June that the Lebanese army had dismantled more than 500 Hezbollah military positions and weapons depots in the south, after a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between the foes.
As the Israeli military keeps up its strikes on Hezbollah targets more than eight months after the truce, AFP looks at what remains of Hezbollah's weapons, supply routes and other capabilities.
Rockets and missiles
When Hezbollah opened hostilities with Israel in October 2023, its arsenal was reputedly larger than the Lebanese army's, and experts estimated it included ballistic missiles, as well as rockets, anti-aircraft, anti-tank and anti-ship missiles.
Hezbollah was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of "resistance" against Israel, which occupied the south until 2000.
Military expert Riad Kahwaji said the group's arsenal was "degraded considerably as a result of the (latest) war and continued frequent strikes by the Israelis against its arms depots".
Intelligence reports indicate that the group "has lost a lot of its heavy arsenal -- the heavy long-range missiles", Kahwaji told AFP, with estimates it has lost "about 70 per cent" of its capabilities.
Supply routes
The December ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, a close Hezbollah ally, dealt a further blow to the group, with chief Naim Qassem admitting it lost a military supply line.
Syria's new authorities have since made several announcements of thwarting weapons shipments to Lebanon.
Kahwaji said the closure of Hezbollah's Syria supply route "has impacted its ability to rebuild its capabilities".
"However, Hezbollah has been trying to build some weapons domestically. It has workshops locally to build things like Katyusha missiles," he said.
Experts previously said Hezbollah had around 150,000 rockets before the latest round of fighting and an underground tunnel network in south Lebanon, as well as in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border.
Officials have said the Lebanese army has sealed off Hezbollah tunnels since the ceasefire, while Israel has said it targeted the militant group's tunnels infrastructure in recent months.
Drones
Former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike last September, said domestic production contributed to his group's large stockpile of drones, which it used extensively during the recent hostilities.
Kahwaji said the group has the know-how and "ability to assemble drones" and clearly "is trying to build its drone capability".
An official close to the disarmament negotiations said Hezbollah had not dismissed the possibility of giving up its heavy weapons but was insisting on keeping its drones and Kornet anti-tank missiles.
Fighters
Nasrallah said his group could count on more than 100,000 fighters, twice as many as estimated by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
In September, an Israeli operation detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, with Lebanese authorities reporting that the attack killed several dozen people and wounded thousands.
The year-long hostilities killed more than 4,000 people, Lebanese authorities have said, most of them during the two months of full-blown war that preceded the ceasefire.
Among the dead were hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders.
According to Hezbollah television channel Al-Manar, Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the ceasefire have killed at least 230 people and wounded 477.
Israel has vowed to keep up its attacks on Hezbollah targets until the group is disarmed.
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