Friday, September 27, 2024

IAF chief: Preventing all weapon transfers from Iran to Hezbollah now a top priority

The chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, said Thursday that preventing all weapon transfers from Iran to Hezbollah is now a top priority, adding that the Lebanese terror group’s ability to recover from its losses in recent days, inflicted by a punishing Israeli offensive, is dependent on its ability to rearm.

“We in Lebanon are now going to prevent any possibility of weapon transfers from Iran, in the face of what we have taken away so far from Hezbollah,” Bar said during a meeting with officers at the Tel Nof Airbase.

His comments came as Hebrew media reported that Israel has in recent days identified an increase in Iranian efforts to transfer weapons to its Lebanese proxy, and after the military struck a crossing on the Syria-Lebanon border that it said was being used by Hezbollah for weapons smuggling.

Iran, Hezbollah’s principal sponsor, has long supplied the terror group with weapons for potential use against Israel. Shipments from Iran to Lebanon are reported to have increased dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza last year, including weapons flown into the Beirut airport on flights from Iran in “mysterious large boxes.”

The air force chief on Thursday also stressed the importance of ground-air coordination in the event of a potential ground invasion of Lebanon, which the military has said in recent days that it is preparing for, conducting training exercises in the north and issuing call-up orders to several reservist units. READ MORE