Hezbollah holds ‘military’ propaganda drill
Hezbollah held a “military” style drill and it invited the media to show off its forces on Sunday, holding “training” in southern Lebanon. The display of the terrorist arsenal is an example of how Hezbollah operates openly, as a kind of terrorist army, or state-within-a-state in Lebanon, openly violating UN resolutions, international law and norms.
Hezbollah showed off rocket launchers, in an attempt to show off only a sliver of its full arsenal. The Iran-backed terrorist group has more than 150,000 rockets, drones and precision-guided munitions.
The rocket launchers on display on Sunday looked like either 122 Grad rockets, 107mm rockets or other types that are not as dangerous as the more sophisticated long-range rockets and maneuvering munitions that Hezbollah claims it has.
Yossi Mansharof, an expert on Hezbollah and regional Shi’ite politics, noted in a tweet that “in a recent military maneuver conducted earlier today, it appears that Hezbollah practiced scenarios involving the kidnapping of one or several Israeli soldiers.”
According to the Associated Press, “masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above and a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.”
The drill coincides with the anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. Yet Hezbollah pretends that it is still the “resistance” against Israel’s supposed occupation of part of the Shaba farms area, known as Mount Dov, meaning that it is a contradiction for Hezbollah to celebrate Israel leaving, while claiming Israel never left.
Al-Mayadeen media, considered sympathetic to Hezbollah, said the drill was held to broadcast to international media “the accumulated capabilities of the resistance in Lebanon, its special and diverse formations, while Israeli media focused on [Hezbollah’s] use of combat and suicide marches,” as well as timing.
This drill was very much intended to get coverage, to show how openly Hezbollah can operate and also to gauge Israel’s response. This is why media close to Hezbollah focused on Israeli coverage, as if to feign legitimacy by getting Israel’s attention.
AL-Mayadeen reported that “during the maneuver, a number of snipers fired at targets on which the Star of David was painted, while gunmen on motorcycles fired live bullets at targets.”
The fact that they used gunmen on motorcycles shows how not serious this was; no military does this. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed terrorist army, but it has no real use for men with guns on motorcycles, except to harass civilians. For instance, Hezbollah waylaid UN vehicles and murdered a member of the UN in December. Its motorcycles serve no purpose in a conflict against actual militaries. Overall, the show that Hezbollah put on was designed primarily as propaganda, but it also showcases how openly the group operates today.