As the Israeli armed forces advance further into southern Lebanon, more deposits of Russian-made weapons are being uncovered in captured Hezbollah storage facilities, according to a Tuesday report by The Wall Street Journal.
The discoveries are reportedly raising concerns within Israel’s military leadership, as the dangerous contraband is more modern and numerous than what was originally believed to be possessed by the Islamic Republic-backed militia.
The newspaper cited Syrian officials who asserted that much of the newer ordinance was transferred to Hezbollah in recent years from Russian stockpiles in Syria, a country where the Kremlin maintains an estimated 20,000 soldiers to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The seized materials are usually brought to Israel’s National Munition Disassembly Lab, where technicians have determined that up to 70 percent of the Hezbollah inventory examined during the early days of the IDF’s September incursion into Lebanon can be traced back to Russia.
Among the items subject to examination have been examples of Russian-manufactured ground-deployed missiles, including the 9K111 Fagot, 9M113 Konkur, 9M133 Kornet, 9K115-2 Metis-M, and the 9M14 Malyutka. Some of these projectiles were encountered as close as half a mile from the Jewish state’s border.
The Journal noted the revelations may be heightening fears in Jerusalem that Moscow is deepening its ties with Hezbollah, making it even more difficult to eliminate the persistent threat the jihadists pose to Israel's national boundaries.
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