Beirutis get anonymous text about Hezbollah missile site

Thousands of Beirut residents received a mysterious WhatsApp message on Wednesday, warning them about living in close proximity to a Hezbollah weapons-storage site, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

“Important message, near your home, a Hezbollah site has been established, proceed with caution,” read the mysterious message, accompanied by a satellite image showing a site in the heart of a residential area.

The site is located in Beirut’s Hadath neighborhood in close proximity to the St. George’s Hospital, the Imam Ali Mosque, a school, a university complex and the Spanish Embassy.

The report blamed Israel for sending the anonymous message warning residents that the site was at risk of exploding at any given moment.

The site identified in the WhatsApp message was in addition to the three sites revealed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week at the United Nations General Assembly.

Last Thursday, Netanyahu accused Hezbollah of “deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields.” He said the Shi’ite Lebanese terrorist group was using several sites next to Rafik Hariri International Airport in an attempt to convert non-precision ground-to-ground missiles into precision missiles with which to hit Israeli cities.

The sites revealed by Netanyahu included one inside a soccer stadium, one adjacent to the airport, and another next to the Ouzai harbor.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned that Israel has “a lot of information at hand, and we are still choosing the right time to reveal [intelligence on additional] facilities both in Iran as well as in Beirut.”

Lebanon has denied Israeli claims about the Hezbollah missile factories. Lebanese Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil took foreign diplomats – including the ambassadors of Russia, Iran and several Asian and African nations – on a tour of the alleged sites in an attempt to discredit the allegations. The United States did not send any diplomats to the tour.

“As you can see, there are no missiles here,” Bassil was quoted by The Washington Post as telling the diplomats as they stood in the middle of the soccer field belonging to one of Lebanon’s biggest soccer teams, Al-Ahed.

Netanyahu accused Lebanon of “blatantly lying” by taking the 73 diplomats to sites after Hezbollah had removed all evidence of the missiles before the ambassadors arrived.