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Hizbullah's Secrets Explode - and Are Covered Up - Again
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Assaf Orion - On Sep. 29, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly by video, revealing the existence of a "secret arms depot" in Beirut's Janah neighborhood. The IDF published details about two other Hizbullah manufacturing sites for precision-guided missiles in the Laylaki and Choueifat neighborhoods, both sheltered beneath residential buildings. In addition to recalling the Aug. 4 blast in Beirut port, Netanyahu recalled the Sep. 22 explosion in Ain Qana. The UN also reported on explosions in Khirbet Selim in July 2009, Tayr Filsay in October 2009, Shahabia in September 2010, and Tayr Harfa in December 2012. Seven weeks before the Ain Qana incident, a Norway-based journalist tweeted in Arabic that the village was home to Hizbullah's engineering unit, and that the group had been using several residences to manufacture explosive charges and store tons of explosive material since 2008, using a dairy as cover. Lebanon and the international community must still reckon with the fact that Hizbullah maintains its own military arsenal and foreign policy outside the government's control; embeds its forces and weapons in populated areas, thereby exposing civilians to safety hazards and turning them into human shields; and persists in developing precision missiles and other advanced threats that risk provoking Israel to take preventive action. The writer served as head of the Strategic Division in the Planning Directorate of the IDF General Staff (2010-2015).