The SA-22 system is also known as Pantsir-S1, which is a truck-mounted surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapons system made in Russia…reports Asian Lite News
The US Intelligence has learned that Russia’s Wagner Group is preparing to deliver an advanced air defence missile system to Hezbollah following the Lebanese militia group’s clashes with Israel, reported New York Post.
American officials are currently monitoring discussions between the Wagner mercenary group and Lebanon’s Hamas-supporting militia on the possible delivery of the SA-22, a system that uses anti-aircraft missiles and guns to combat airstrikes, the New York Post reported citing the Wall Street Journal report.
The SA-22 system is also known as Pantsir-S1, which is a truck-mounted surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapons system made in Russia.
This weapon was also used in the Russian-Ukraine war and could be deployed in the Middle East by the Iran-backed militia group for defence purposes against Israel’s airstrikes.
Moreover, as the Israel-Hamas war escalates, clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have also increased along the Lebanese border.
According to the US officials, the SA-22 has yet to be delivered to Lebanon, but highlighted that some Hezbollah and Wagner personnel are currently stationed in Syria, New York Post reported.
However, it is still unclear if the weapon could be transported from Lebanon to Gaza to help Hamas in fighting against Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza.
Moreover, Russian officials have also not commented on the alleged discussion between Wagner and Hezbollah yet.
Meanwhile, the US has made its presence in the area by stationing an aircraft barrier in the Eastern Mediterranean to hinder Hezbollah from joining Hamas in attacking Israel.
As Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7 as Hamas attacked the country by firing rockets, US President Joe Biden warned outside parties from staging an assault on Israel’s borders.
However, despite the warning, the heads of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad met last week to announce their united war against Israel, the New York Post reported. (ANI)
More Israeli soldiers were kitted out in full combat gear along the security fence with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground offensive against the Palestinian enclave….reports Asian Lite News
Israel is stepping up its attacks on the Gaza Strip ahead of an anticipated ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli military has said, amid escalating tensions also on the country’s northern front and in the occupied West Bank.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Sunday that the military was “intensifying air strikes on the Gaza Strip”, adding that “dozens” of Hamas militants were killed overnight, including Muhamad Qatmash, who was identified as the deputy head of Hamas’ artillery array in Gaza.
Hagari also updated the number of known hostages being held in the Gaza Strip to 212. In addition, the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, as it entered the 16th day, has led to more than 6,000 deaths on both sides, Xinhua news agency reported.
More Israeli soldiers were kitted out in full combat gear along the security fence with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground offensive against the Palestinian enclave.
Meanwhile, Hamas continued its strikes on Israeli forces despite the odds of a broader war seeming perilously high.
In a press statement, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said its fighters carried out “a tight ambush” against Israeli troops “east of Khan Younis,” a southern Gazan city, on Sunday, killing at least one Israeli soldier.
The Israeli army confirmed that one of its soldiers was killed and three others injured by an anti-tank missile launched from Gaza. The missile targeted a tank and an engineering vehicle near Kibbutz Kissufim, an Israeli community in the vicinity of the Palestinian enclave.
It noted that the troops were ambushed while carrying out an operation as “part of the effort to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, clear the area, and locate missing persons and bodies.”
Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while visiting troops near the border with Lebanon, warned Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese armed group and political party, against opening a second war front with Israel.
“If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will be making the mistake of its life. We will strike it with a force that it cannot even imagine, that will be destructive for the Lebanese state,” he cautioned.
In an interview with the local MTV channel on Sunday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib reaffirmed that Hezbollah will not intervene in the Israel-Hamas conflict unless Israel launches a large-scale invasion of Gaza or a heavy attack on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said in a statement that it carried out four rounds of attacks, including two drone attacks, targeting Hezbollah posts after anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon toward Israel.
According to Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news, at least 11 Hezbollah militants were killed by Israeli fire since Saturday night.
As cross-border fighting between Israel and militants in southern Lebanon intensified, Israel on Sunday announced plans to evacuate 14 more communities near the northern border.
In the occupied West Bank, Israel carried out earlier in the day a rare air strike on Al-Ansar mosque, which the IDF claimed to be a hideout of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) members.
The strike killed two militants and raised the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank to 93 since Oct. 7, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.
The airstrike targeted “an underground compound” in the mosque, located in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, according to a joint statement released by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and army. They claimed that Hamas and PIJ operatives were “organizing an imminent terror attack” there.
In addition, at nightfall, two Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed during clashes with Israeli forces in the town of Zawata, west of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Apart from its political and military influence, Hezbollah’s social and charitable endeavors have boosted its popularity in Lebanese society, garnering support from Sunnis and Christians alike….reports Vikas Dutta
As the Israel-Hamas conflict threatens to spiral into a wider conflagration, another non-state actor on the other end of Israel is priming up.
This Lebanese Islamist militant group, however, is an outlier – a Shia outfit in predominantly Sunni region, one in which Western – and (most) Arab – powers have labelled a terror group, and yet, the only one that has militarily made Israeli forces twice retreat from Arab territory.
Then, in another incongruity, Shia Islamist Hezbollah has close links with Sunni Islamist Hamas, in whose support it is massing up on the Israel-Lebanon border as the Israeli attacks on Gaza continue unabated.
This may not be as strange as it seems for it was their implacable enemy Israel that was responsible for growth of both, if not their genesis, and then, facilitating their contact.
Also, Hezbollah belongs to an outlier Arab country – the multi-denominational Lebanon, where, since its independence, the post of President is reserved for Maronite Christians, of Prime Minister for Sunni Muslims, and the Parliament Speaker for Shias.
And it is, by no means, a marginal outfit. While its longtime leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, in 2021, pegged its strength at 100,000 men, other sources estimate it at 25,000 full-time members and 25,000-30,000 reservists, armed with the latest weapons and equipment as well as thousands of anti-tank missiles, as well a fair amount of anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles.
In fact, Hezbollah is perceived as stronger that the Lebanese armed forces themselves, and its inventory of missiles is purportedly larger than the armies of most sovereign nations.
In around around forty years of existence, it has transformed from a small clandestine group of Islamist revolutionaries, known for guerrilla warfare and “human wave” warfare in the mountains of south Lebanon and other insurgent actions like suicide attacks to a potent semi-military organisation, imbued with proper intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities, enabling it to mount ambushes and more sophisticated, complex, and coordinated combined arms attacks on multiple targets.
In fact, Hezbollah has not carried out any suicide attack since 1999.
On the other hand, Hezbollah also began participation in Lebanese politics after the Taif accords of 1989 ended the country’s civil war, and has become a prominent political actor, with a number of seats in Parliament and becoming a part of many governments.
And this is why most Arab countries deem it a terrorist outfit, Lebanon considers a legitimate political force – and so does Syria – where it fought for Bashar Al Assad in the civil war, and to, some extent, Iraq, where it entered the fray against the Islamic State.
And apart from its political role, its military prowess, it is Hezbollah’s social and charitable role that has increased their popularity in Lebanese society to the extent that it has support from Sunnis and Christians too.
Born out of the civil war that erupted in Lebanon from 1975, the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982, and under the influence of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Iranian Revolution, Hezbollah primarily owes its origin to Shia clerics, who studied in Iraq and Iran, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which trained its cadres.
Slowly overtaking and supplanting the Amal movement, which had so far commanded the allegiance of Lebanon’s Shias, spread over the country’s south and hinterland, Hezbollah came to prominence when it was linked to the suicide attacks on the US Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, the attacks on the barracks on the US Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut in October 1983 – which led both the US and France withdrawing their peacekeeping forces from Lebanon.
It was also named for at least one of the attacks in 1982 and 1983 on the Israeli HQs in Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre – then occupied by Israelis after their invasion of South Lebanon.
However, there is uncertainty whether Hezbollah had come into existence by the time of these incidents, but it grew on to finally force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000. While Israelis returned in 2006 after Hezbollah kidnapped some soldiers, they again had to withdraw without enabling their goal of crushing it.
Israeli officials have admitted responsibility for facilitating Hezbollah’s rise. Following the 2006 war, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said: “When we entered Lebanon … there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shia in the south. It was our presence there that created Hezbollah.”
And Israel’s December 1992 decision to deport over 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives from Gaza in to Southern Lebanon – only enabled them to establish contacts with Hezbollah and learned from them.
It remains to be seen if Hezbollah enter – and expand – the dynamics of the current conflict.
There is no doubt for Hezbollah not to feel the heat of Israeli offenses which may pressure the latter to escalate its operational tempo to a certain point of threshold….writes Anant Mishra
With Israeli Defence Forces encircling Gaza, military experts are beginning to anticipate Lebanon’s response, with escalating border clashes pointing towards skirmishes along a second front.
If the conflict prolongs, this is a possible outcome that could engulf this limited war into a full-blown regional conflict. With Hamas threatening execution of hostages as a presumed leverage, the risk to miscalculate strategic/tactical decisions are higher for both sides.
That said, the sequence of violence appears to be limited yet stable along the Blue Line – the United Nations demarcated boundary corresponding to the Lebanese southern border, which has witnessed limited shelling, with some incursions.
According to a Beirut based expert on proxy militia, key leadership of anti-Israeli groups discussed coordination and cooperation at greater levels within the groups at wider extent in the last six months between Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas along with other Tehran-backed groups operating in Iraq, Yemen & Syria. Hence, it is incomprehensible for Hezbollah to simply stand aside and watch Israeli defence forces intensifying their offensives against Hamas in Gaza.
There is no doubt for Hezbollah not to feel the heat of Israeli offenses which may pressure the latter to escalate its operational tempo to a certain point of threshold. If the war in Gaza escalates, Hezbollah will employ offensive manoeuvres along the thin Blue Line. It may reiterate ambush tactics against Israeli foot patrols or intensify mortar/rocket strikes targeting Shebaa Farms, a mountainous region along the Lebanese southeastern border, under Israeli occupation since 1967.
It may covertly launch rocket attacks into Israel (without taking credit, under the assumption of Hamas led attack). It may rally Tehran backed proxy militia groups to target Israel from the Syrian Golan Heights, where the group continues to enjoy certain presence.
From a preliminary appearance, Hezbollah continues to provide covert support to Hamas below a certain threshold, with an intent to avoid any escalated response from Israel. If Hezbollah escalates, a response from the Israelis could result in an ending escalated driven cycle of violence. To prevent a full-blown escalated conflict, Iran may have tied down Hezbollah’s operation to limited support.
For Tehran, Hezbollah is the most potent external proxy component with military expertise, last resort perhaps to deter against and Israeli or US offenses against Iran. It is highly unlikely for Tehran to lay resources in the hands of Hamas that too, in a limited yet escalated conflict. By the same logic, Israelis do not wish to open a second front against Lebanon, instead prioritising rescue of hostages in Gaza and eliminating leftover Hamas fighters in the region.
It is highly likely for Hezbollah to reinforce Hamas fighters in case of an Israeli ground invasion. However, if the level of violence increases and Hamas appears to be pinned against an aggressive ground force, Hezbollah may be forced to indirectly support Hamas through tactical advisers, engaging Israeli defence forces through rocket attacks, relieving some pressure on Hamas fighters.
Hamas rejects Australia’s decision of listing it as terror group
It is highly unlikely for Israeli defence forces to employ a large-scale ground and air assault in Gaza and in Lebanon, simultaneously. Even for the highly trained and state of the art technology equipped Israeli Defence Forces, employing air power alone against Hezbollah will not be sufficient, giving necessary breathing space for the Hezbollah leadership to regroup. That said, reinforcing armour with sizeable ground forces deep into Lebanese’s territory will result in a serious loss of lives, a tactical gamble. That said, conducting a joint air and ground assault in Gaza and Lebanon simultaneously, is a critical decision for Tel Aviv, especially if Hamas fighters reinforce in smaller pockets elsewhere and strike. Confrontation with Hezbollah could escalate at least on the Syrian front, forcing proxies to target inside Israel from Iraq and Yemen.
For Hezbollah, if Tehran directs its leadership to assist Hamas with full force, the organizational leadership would do so at the cost of expunging all its military arsenal or might. This could expend all available resources in its expense, plunging Lebanon into an everlasting humanitarian misery, facing backlash even from its staunch Shia proponents in the country.
Taking the note of caution employed by Israel and Hezbollah on an escalated conflict, the best scenario for confrontation could be of sustained engagement between the two actors, largely localised along southern Lebanon and northern Israel, falling short of a full-blown war. In such a situation, Hezbollah may reinforce Quds Force with Radwan Brigade to conduct cross border skirmishes—which the group specialises. This could result in Israeli Air Force targeting critical infrastructure sites in Lebanon and conducting limited armour incursion crossing the Blue Line.
To prevent such an incursion, Hezbollah may resort to mass missile attack, forcing Israeli defence forces to call for long range precision guided munitions against key launch pads. Such engagements do not qualify for traditional definition of skirmish with the potency to escalate if either of the sides makes a tactical miscalculation. That said, Israeli Defence Forces may instead employ pre-emptive rocket strikes against known Hezbollah hide outs, with an intent to wipeout any potential arsenal, neutralising threat to Israeli cities.
With Hamas unpredictable and incomprehensible attack on southern Israel and Israel’s tactical encirclement of Gaza, the Israeli-Hezbollah engagement stands probable. With Israeli Defence Forces calling for reservists on the Southern Lebanon border, it is yet to see how this war unfolds.
The exchange of fire on the northern border came as Israel was fighting the Hamas group on the southern frontier….reports Asian Lite News
The Hezbollah on Sunday morning launched mortars at Israeli military sites on the Lebanon border, as fighting continued in southern Israel in the wake of a major attack launched by the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.
Hezbollah claimed to have fired dozens of rockets and shells at three Israeli positions in the contested Mount Dov region in solidarity with the Hamas attack, Times of Israel reported.
The Lebanese group said in a statement that the attack, using “large numbers of rockets and shells,” was in solidarity with the “Palestinian resistance.” It claimed the Israeli positions were directly hit, Times of Israel reported.
Footage posted to social media showed the moment one of the mortars hit an Israeli military site on the border.
The Israel Defense Forces did not report any injuries, and said it responded with artillery fire toward the area of the launches and a drone strike against “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the area.
According to a military source, the site targeted in the drone strike was a tent the terror group set up in Israeli territory months ago. There were no immediate reports of Lebanese casualties.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said it was in contact with both sides “to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation.”
Hezbollah has largely sat out previous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terror groups, though it allowed local Palestinian factions to operate out of its territory in southern Lebanon, Times of Israel reported.
Tensions have remained high with Hezbollah in recent months, with the deployment of dozens of Hezbollah posts along the Lebanese border, including the tent, and increasing patrols and presence by terror group operatives in the area.
Other recent incidents on the Lebanese border have included camouflaged Hezbollah members walking along the border in violation of a UN resolution, and Hezbollah activists crossing the Blue Line (though not the Israeli border fence) on numerous occasions, including attempts to damage the border fence and army surveillance equipment.
The exchange of fire on the northern border came as Israel was fighting the Hamas terror group on the southern frontier.
The Gaza-based milkitant group launched an unprecedented assault on Israel on Saturday morning, firing thousands of rockets and sending hundreds of gunmen into Israeli communities by land, sea and air, killing some 300 people and injuring over 1,500, Times of Israel reported.
Nasrallah also slammed the US Justice Department for seizing dozens of Iranian-linked news website domains, saying this move exposes Washington’s false claims about freedom….reports Asian Lite News
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has accused the US of pitting the Lebanese Army against the Shia movement.
“The US statements about supporting the Lebanese army to face Hezbollah aim at stirring sedition among the Lebanese,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
The Hezbollah leader added that his party has always been in favour of reinforcing the Lebanese army which guarantees Lebanon’s security, integrity and unity against any Israeli aggression.
Nasrallah also slammed the US Justice Department for seizing dozens of Iranian-linked news website domains, saying this move exposes Washington’s false claims about freedom.
Meanwhile, he called upon Lebanese authorities to quickly form a cabinet to tackle the country’s multiple crises, reiterating his readiness to import fuel from Iran if the government fails to deal with the shortage problems.
“Hezbollah has finished all the logistical preparations to import fuel from Iran. When the state fails to tackle the shortage crisis, the final decision will be taken,” he said.
‘Logistics ready for Iranian fuel imports’
Nasrallah also repeated pledges to import Iranian fuel should shortages across the country persist, saying that all logistical steps for that possibility were complete.
Nasrallah, who heads the Iranian-backed armed Lebanese group, said earlier in June Iran could supply fuel to Lebanon in local pounds, avoiding a foreign currency crunch.
For weeks worsening fuel shortages on the back of Lebanon’s deepening financial crisis have forced motorists to queue for hours for very little gasoline.
“I want to stress that I promised and I’m still promising … if we have to go to Iran to get gasoline and fuel oil we will, even if it causes a problem,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
Earlier on Friday caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab approved a decision to import fuel at a weaker Lebanese pound to dollar exchange rate, in effect decreasing the subsidy on gasoline.
“Everything is ready…. all we need is permission to move,” Nasrallah said, adding that this would not be done through the central bank in order to avoid violating U.S. sanctions aimed at choking off Iranian oil exports.
The concerns were raised in a discussion on Washington’s defence cooperation with Lebanon…reports Asian Lite News
A US Defence Department official has warned of the threat posed by Hezbollah to Lebanon’s stability amid the economic crisis wracking the country, according to reports.
The concerns were raised in a discussion on Washington’s defence cooperation with Lebanon, the Arab News reported.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist and illicit activities threaten Lebanon’s security, stability, and sovereignty,” the Arab News quoted Dana Stroul, deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East, as saying at a conference hosted by the Middle East Institute.
“It (Hezbollah) is more concerned with its own interests than what is best for the Lebanese people,” he added.
The US has provided support for more than 15 years to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), but the increasing influence of the terrorist-designated Hezbollah in Lebanese politics has strained the partnership.
Last week, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that his country looked forward to strengthening bilateral ties with Syria in all areas.
His remarks were included in a letter sent to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to congratulate the latter on winning his fourth seven-year term in last week’s presidential election.
“I sincerely congratulate you on the occasion of your re-election as the president of the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic, hoping efforts will continue in the next phase to stabilize your country and restore cohesion among all its areas,” Aoun said.
The Lebanese leader also confirmed deep historical ties between the two countries.
He also wished for the return of the displaced Syrians to their homeland to participate in the development of Syria.
Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivers a televised speech in Beirut, Lebanon
“The awareness of the Lebanese people has prevented this so far, but the danger is still there,” said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ….reports Asian Lite News
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned against the danger of a civil war in Lebanon.
“There is information that some external and internal parties are pushing for a civil war in Lebanon,” Xinhua news agency quoted Nasrallah as saying in a televised speech on Thursday.
“The awareness of the Lebanese people has prevented this so far, but the danger is still there,” he said.
Nasrallah noted that his party will never opt to using weapons to force change in the country.
“Hezbollah is not interested in resorting to weapons for the sake of reforming the state, forming a government, or fighting corruption because these goals can be achieved by other means.”
He added that Hezbollah is not the only party that owns weapons in Lebanon.
The Hezbollah leader also warned that some of the protests taking place in the country recently may be triggered by the parties who want to provoke violence.
Lebanon has been witnessing demonstrations all over the country in protest against the dire living conditions amid the unprecedented economic crisis.
The August 2020 Port of Beirut blasts and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have exacerbated the country’s economic situation, driving thousands of companies out of business while leaving thousands of people unemployed.
Figures released by the World Bank showed that over 50 per cent of the Lebanese people have become “poor”.
This year, the Central Bank of Lebanon also tightened regulations against the country’s banks, which compelled some of them to close branches and lay off employees to stay afloat.
The national currency has slipped to a new low of 10,000 Lebanese pounds per $1.
