Earlier on Friday, the IAF struck infrastructure that was used to smuggle weapons via Syria to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon at the Janta Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border. "The Hezbollah terrorist organization exploits civilian infrastructure for terrorist activities and for smuggling weapons designated for its terror attacks against Israeli citizens," the IDF explained. "These efforts are led by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanese territory from Iran and its proxies and increasing Hezbollah's stockpile of weapons as much as possible." Related articles: IDF operated in Syria to prevent Turkish takeover Syrian Foreign Min. on Israeli strikes: 'Unjustified escalation' Eliminated Hezbollah terrorist was assisting Hamas IAF strikes Hezbollah terrorist in Beirut Since its establishment, Unit 4400 has constructed numerous strategic routes along the Syria-Lebanon border. During the war and as part of Operation "Northern Arrows," the IAF conducted extensive intelligence-based strikes and eliminations targeting Hezbollah's Unit 4400 and various smuggling routes. These efforts included the elimination of the commander of Unit 4400 Muhammad Ja’far Qasir, in early October in Beirut, and his designated successor, Ali Hassan Gharib, a few weeks later in Damascus. With them, a number of senior terrorists from the unit were also eliminated. "The strikes are an additional part of the IDF's effort to target weapons smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon, and prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing weapons smuggling routes," the IDF explained, adding that it "will continue to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel in accordance with the understandings in the ceasefire agreement."
