The expected fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime may be Hizbullah’s gain of chemical and biological weapons that could be used against Israel, officials fear.
The latest concerns, reported by foreign news services, come three weeks after former Labor party Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned, “We are talking in terms of thousands of missiles that might move to Hizbullah and might endanger the whole Middle East.”
He told a news conference organized by the Israel Project that Syrian’s arsenal includes biological and chemical weapons.
Lebanese sources have reported that Hizbullah has been increasing its smuggling of weapons from Syria.
Defense officials told the Associated Press this week that they are worried Hizbullah will obtain Syria’s S-125 anti-aircraft missiles, which could down surveillance flights Israel conducts over southern Lebanon. The terrorist organization has created a “state within a state” in the area.
In 2000, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak suddenly pulled all military personnel out of the “security zone” in southern Lebanon, from where terrorists shot missiles on northern Israel. Hizbullah easily filled the vacuum of power. With the absence of Israeli intelligence, it stockpiled 20,000 missiles until launching the Second Lebanon War against Israel in the summer of 2006.
An Israel intelligence official said last week that Israel now faces 200,000 missiles on all fronts.