The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), advancing through southern Lebanon, finds large stocks of Russian weapons in Hezbollah warehouses. It most likely fell into the hands of a group from Syria, where Russia supplies its weapons.
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reviewed samples of such weapons and cited the words of Syrian security forces and an Arab official.
The Russian weapons now found in Lebanon are newer and more effective than those previously known to Israel. And there is more of it. It significantly increased Hezbollahʼs defense capabilities, allowing it to withstand Israeli airstrikes. At the same time, it increases Israelʼs fears that Russia is deepening relations with Hezbollah.
Kornet anti-tank missile complexes are among the findings of the Israeli military in Lebanon. The marking indicates that they were manufactured in 2020. Anti-tank weapons such as the Kornet have become one of the most effective in Hezbollahʼs arsenal.
How Hezbollah receives Russian weapons from Syria
When civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the Russian military came to the aid of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia sent weapons to the country, which were accumulated by the Syrian troops, and also kept its own weapons depots there.
Already in 2015, the Russians began fighting on the territory of Syria together with Hezbollah fighters, which also came to the aid of Assad. This brought the two sides closer together, giving Hezbollah the ability to use Russian stockpiles in Syria whenever it needed more weapons, including anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles.
In addition to anti-tank Kornets, other Russian anti-tank missile systems, including Metis, Konkurs, Fagot and Malyutka, were also found in Hezbollah warehouses. On one complex it was written in Russian that the weapons were sent from Russia to the Ministry of Defense of Syria. However, not all weapons had such markings.
According to a senior Israeli military official, at the beginning of Israelʼs invasion of Lebanon, 60% to 70% of the weapons seized were Russian. But not all of them are modern, some were made back in the 1980s.
Israelʼs approach
Israel tries to maintain good relations with Russia. One of the reasons is an attempt to avoid a conflict in Syria, where Russia has a military contingent. Therefore, Israel, among other things, offered Ukraine only limited non-military support.
However, after Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow changed its position in the Middle East — it repeatedly hosted the leaders of Hamas, deepened relations with Iran, and helps the Yemeni Houthis, who attack civilian ships in the Red Sea ostensibly to support the Palestinians.
Some analysts and Israeli politicians question Israelʼs position on the Russian Federation, arguing that the Kremlin has made it clear who it supports — Israelʼs enemies.
"We need to get rid of this approach. This is not just Russiaʼs support for the "axis of resistance", which is not related to Israel. We encounter this on the battlefield, and it leads to losses," said a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies Carmit Valency, a Tel Aviv think tank.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saʼar confirmed that Russia has influence over Hezbollah fighters. He said Israel hoped Russia would help implement the Hezbollah disarmament deal by preventing arms smuggling from Syria to Lebanon.
"The principle that Hezbollah cannot re-arm or acquire new weapons systems or take them into Lebanon and re-establish a pre-war threat is vital to the success of any deal in Lebanon. The Russians are present in Syria. If they agree with this principle, they can effectively contribute to the achievement of this goal," said the minister.
Conflict between Israel and Hezbollah
In Lebanon, on September 17, 2024, hundreds of pagers belonging to the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah exploded. A repeated series of explosions occurred on September 18, when walkie-talkies and radio receivers were detonated. In total, at least 39 people died from the attack, and about 3 000 others were injured, and not all of them were members of the group.
After the repeated explosions, the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel was shifting its main military efforts to the north — a "new phase" of the war was beginning. In the north, Israel borders Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates.
Already on September 20, IDF struck the Hezbollah high command in Beirut. The commander of the groupʼs missile division Ibrahim Kubaisi was killed in the attack. And within a week, on September 27, IDF struck the headquarters of Hezbollah in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut — in this attack, the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah was killed.
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