Hizbullah”s Rockets Could Reach as Far as Dimona
Israeli army commander Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi warned on Tuesday that Hizbullah is currently armed with thousands of missiles, some of which could reach the southern city of Dimona.
"Some of them have a range of 300 km and some of them have a range of up to 325 km," Ashkenazi told the Knesset”s foreign affairs and defense committee, saying the missiles were ready for use.
Dimona houses Israel”s secretive nuclear reactor.
"There is a paradox – on one hand there is calm, but when you peek over the fence you can see armament and empowerment. If Hizbullah carries out a retaliatory attack for (Imad) Mughniyeh it will force Israel to respond and this will lead to deterioration," he said.
Mughniyeh was Hizbullah”s military commander who was killed in a car bombing in Syria last year.
The Jewish state is working to prevent weapons smuggling from several areas in the region, the Israeli army chief of staff said, noting last week”s raid of the Francop vessel, aboard which Israeli soldiers allegedly found hundreds of tons of Iranian arms bound for Hizbullah.
Ashkenazi said there is a battle between radicals and moderates in the region. "This pushes Iran to radical moves and funding of terror."
He said Tehran is acting "irrationally" despite being an "extremist" country.
The committee discussed among other things the findings of the Israeli army investigations on Operation Cast Lead, as well as the alleged arming of Hizbullah in Lebanon.