A Secure, Undisclosed Location: Inside Hizbollah’s Bunkers
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The latest bout of speculation over an Israeli or U.S.-led attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities shows that the notion of another conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is never far away — and both sides are aware that the next war promises to be of a magnitude that will dwarf the 2006 conflict. In the decade and a half that I have been following Hezbollah’s military evolution, it was the secret underground bunkers built in southern Lebanon between 2000 and 2006 that underlined to me more than anything else the militant Lebanese Shiite group’s single-minded dedication to pursuing its struggle against Israel.
These bunkers — some of which I discovered and explored a few months after the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel — were far more sophisticated than I or anyone else had expected, and the skill and patience in constructing them deep inside the hills of south Lebanon without anyone noticing was remarkable.
The 2006 war ended inconclusively, and Hezbollah and Israel are preparing for another war that neither side seeks but both suspect is probably inevitable. Hezbollah military sources tell me that new underground facilities have been constructed in Lebanon’s rugged mountains since 2006, larger than before and more elaborate. Recruitment and training continues in hidden camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and in Iran. New battle plans have been drawn up and new weapons systems delivered.
For now, the anticipated level of destruction in both Lebanon and Israel has acted as a form of deterrence — but none of the drivers that led to war in 2006 have been resolved, and the “balance of terror” between Hezbollah and Israel remains inherently unstable.
As Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Nov. 11, on the occasion of the party’s Martyrs’ Day: “Lebanon — through its army, people and resistance — has become strong, but that doesn’t mean that we should not remain vigilant. This resistance has always been vigilant.”