A propaganda video released by an outlet affiliated with the Hezbollah terror group threatens missile strikes on nine highly sensitive chemical and nuclear sites in Israel.
The video published by the al-Ahed news website comes on the heels of increased saber-rattling by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatening to strike Israel’s nuclear reactor in the southern city of Dimona and an ammonia storage tank in the northern city of Haifa.
The video, published on February 22, not only lists the nine sites and shows satellite images of the locations, but in some instances adds information such as how many people work there, how many buildings it’s comprised of and what dangerous materials are being handled in it.
The video begins with what appears to be Russian S-300 missiles being fired and striking the Dimona nuclear reactor and the sound of alarms.
The video also lists other sites, including the Nahal Sorek desalination plant in central Israel, and the Kishon chemical plant located near Haifa.
Other locations included are nuclear weapons research sites for the Israeli arms developer Raphael, and sites where the Israeli military is allegedly storing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
While Israeli believes Hezbollah has a large weapons arsenal, with rockets that can strike much of the country, the terror group is not known to posses S-300 missiles. Several Israeli airstrikes in Syria have reportedly been carried out to thwart transfers of advanced weapons to the group.
Earlier this week, a court ruled that an ammonia storage tank in Haifa must be emptied out and moved, partially in response to a report that found a missile strike on the site could kill tens of thousands of people.
Just two weeks ago, Nasrallah “advised” Israel in an aggressive speech, to dismantle its large ammonia tank in Haifa and the nuclear reactor in Dimona before they were hit by Hizballah rockets and caused massive casualties. He and his associates have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that their Lebanese terrorist group has acquired weapons capable of deterring Israel as well as the capability to catch Israeli intelligence unawares by “surprises.”
In previous articles, DEBKAfile accounted for the heightened bellicosity of Hizballah’s leaders by the permission Bashar Assad recently granted Hizballah to launch missiles against Israel from Syrian soil as well as from Lebanon.
Our military and counterterrorism sources draw a straight line from Hizballah’s latest stance and the newfound aggressiveness displayed this week by the Palestinian extremist Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip.
Thursday, March 2, Hamas spokesmen stated that the group would no longer exercise restraint in responding to the heavy Israeli air and artillery strikes that are conducted in retaliation for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Henceforth, it would conduct a policy of “military position for military position” – meaning that for every Hamas position destroyed by Israel, the Palestinian extremists would swipe at a comparable Israeli military site.
The new Hamas posture challenged Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman”s strategy of holding the Hamas government of Gaza responsible for any attacks coming from the Palestinian enclave - whether the work of Hamas or the extremist Salafis running loose there.
On Feb. 27, the Israeli Air Force smashed five Hamas targets in the northern, central and southern regions of the enclave after a rocket from Gaza exploded in Israel. The IDF did not respond to the rocket fired subsequently at the Hof Ashkelon region. But then, after a round of fire from Gaza to shoot up IDF military engineering equipment, the IDF knocked over two small Hamas look-out positions in the north.
Hamas had in fact given the defense minister an ultimatum: either exercise restraint, or continue the policy of massive retaliations for every rocket coming from the Gaza Strip - at the risk of a fresh round of fighting with Hamas. Lieberman appears to have settled for the first option for the time being.
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