Photo: khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hezbollah released a video on Saturday in which it threatened to strike Israeli cities with precision-guided missiles. The Iranian-backed terror group said it has the capability to hit “very precise targets” anywhere in Israel. “Today, we can not only hit the city of Tel Aviv but also, if God wants and with his help, can hit very precise targets within Tel Aviv,” Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said in the clips which were released on social media. “We can also hurt anywhere within occupied Palestine,” he suggested. Coordinates of Israeli cities were shown in the video (pictured). Although Hezbollah has 100,000-130,000 missiles, only a relatively small number can be fired accurately at targets. The terror group is now engaged in a potentially deadly precision missile project which would allow it to accurately hit Israeli cities, military sites and critical infrastructure. Supported by Iran, Hezbollah is working to upgrade its large arsenal, by converting “dumb” missiles – those which do not have precision capability – in a process which can be undertaken in a matter of hours at a cost of $5,000-$10,000. A report last autumn indicated that the new initiative involves the fitting of GPS guidance packs on to medium-range Zelzal-2 missiles. With the assistance of Tehran, which supplies the components, the terror group has so far upgraded between 20 and 200 of its missiles. Israeli airstrikes have been attempting to prevent Iran smuggling advanced weapons into Lebanon under the cover of the Syrian civil war. Iran has now shifted its efforts to helping Hezbollah build a manufacturing and conversion capacity in Lebanon. In September last year, the IDF identified a Hezbollah precision-missile factory in southern Lebanon.
