Human shields, and war crimes waiting to happen on Hizballah's part. And nothing will be done to stop them. There is certainly no political will in Lebanon or at the U.N. to do so, just as prior calls for Hizballah to disarm have not been worth the paper they're printed on.
No, if and when hostilities resume (and Hizballah isn't amassing all these arms to sit and look at them), this report will be long forgotten, and almost everyone will blame Israel. "US envoy Oren warns: Hizbullah has 15,000 rockets on border," from the Jerusalem Post, September 3:
Hizbullah has an arsenal of approximately 15,000 rockets amassed on Lebanon's border with Israel, including some with a long enough range to hit the southern city of Eilat, US envoy Michael Oren told AFP on Friday.
"The Syrian-Iranian backed Hizbullah poses a very serious threat to Israel...Hizbullah today now has four times as many rockets as it had during the 2006 Lebanon war. These rockets are longer-range. Every city in Israel is within range right now, including Eilat," he said.
Oren expressed Israeli concerns with Hizbullah's concealment of the weapons as well.
"In 2006, many of their missiles were basically out in the open, in silos and the Israeli air force was able to neutralize a great number of them...Today those same missiles have been placed under hospitals, and homes and schools because Hizbullah knows full well if we try to defend ourselves against them, we will be branded once again as war criminals."
This was not the first time that Oren has warned of the threat that Hizbullah poses to Israel. Following a clash on the northern border between the Lebanese Army and IDF soldiers last month, in which Lebanese soldiers opened fire on two IDF officers, killing one and seriously wounding the other, Oren warned that the distinction between Lebanon's Army and Hizbullah has become "cloudy." He expressed concerns that advanced weaponry given to the regular army could find its way into the hands of the Islamist group.
Following the border clashes and Oren's warnings, the US Congress voted to suspend $100 million in aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Coincidentally, Hizballah had a three-story arms depot blow up just today. No word in this report what this building may have been near, but it is in what is supposed to be a demilitarized zone following the 2006 war. "Middle East: 'Hezbollah arms depot' explodes," from AdnKronos International, September 3:
Beruit, 3 Sept. (AKI) - A suspected Hezbollah arms depot in southern Lebanon caught fire on Friday setting off a series of explosions and injuring five people, according to the NowLebanon website.
The three-floor building in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Chehabiyya - about 80 kilometres south of Beirut - was being used as a Hezbollah arms depot, NowLebanon reported, citing unnamed sources quoted.
Nothing to see here:
Lebanese soldiers arrived to cordon off the area and prevent access to media, according to the report.
Chehabiyya is part of a volatile border zone south of the Litani River in which Hezbollah has been banned from having weapons under a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war between the militant group and Israel....
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