IDF: Hezbollah hiding weapons in 160 villages in southern Lebanon

Thousands of weapons are hidden in homes in 160 villages of southern Lebanon, senior Israeli defense officials said on Tuesday, a day after one such stockpile exploded in the home of a Hezbollah operative in the village of Tayr Filsay. On Tuesday, the IDF released video taken from an Israeli aircraft of the home, which belongs to Abdul Nasser Issa, a low-level Hezbollah operative. The blast took place at around 8 p.m. on Monday, and an hour later Hezbollah men were seen carrying weapons out of the home and loading them onto a truck. In the footage, seven men are seen carrying a four-meter-long device, thought to be a Katyusha rocket or launcher. Hezbollah is believed to have more than 30,000 rockets of various ranges and sizes.

Contrary to media reports, Israeli defense sources said on Tuesday that no one was killed by the blast but that one person was injured. The officials also dismissed Hezbollah claims that the explosion was caused by IDF ordinance left behind during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The Israeli aircraft followed the truck as it drove about 4 kilometers to another village. There, the truck pulled up at another home and the group of men unloaded the weapons. "Hezbollah uses civilian homes to hide its weaponry," an IDF officer said. "This is a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701."

Israel’s President Shimon Peres said that Hezbollah had turned Lebanon into a "powder keg" that would in the end do damage to Lebanon. "It is Hezbollah which is endangering Lebanon, not Israel, just as it is Hamas which is endangering the Palestinian people," Peres said. "We have evacuated all of the territory and are now extending a sincere hand to the Lebanese people. Lebanon could have long since become the Switzerland of the Middle East. It is Hezbollah and Hamas that are preventing this economic flowering and peace and security for the region." Hezbollah acknowledged that the home belonged to one of its members, but would not give any other information. Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan said Israel was exaggerating the incident, to "take advantage of it for political interests."