Report: Tel Aviv within Hizbullah range

'Times' says group has network of bunkers that can withstand air strikes.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
watching iaf hizbullah (photo credit: AP [file])
watching iaf hizbullah
(photo credit: AP [file])
Hizbullah has amassed an undisclosed number of Fatah-110 rockets, which could theoretically be fired at Tel Aviv, according to a report in Britain's Sunday Times. The projectile, an upgraded Chinese assault rocket, has a 500-lb warhead and a range of 200 kilometers. According to the report, close to the Israel-Lebanon border, under the noses of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, the guerrilla group has built a network of underground military bunkers that can withstand air strikes. The Times said that Hizbullah had replenished its weaponry and cited IDF intelligence estimates that it had stockpiled a total of 20,000 rockets. "Since the Israeli forces left, Hizbullah has been building formidable military underground posts under the noses of the UN," the Times quoted an IDF intelligence officer as saying. Modern equipment was being used to sink the shafts, sometimes as deep as 21 meters, the Times said, adding that some bunkers were as wide as a football field, while others could hold fewer than 10 fighters. The IDF has already discovered a number of Hizbullah bunkers since the end of the Second Lebanon War last summer. In January, Lt.-Col. Eren Pukar, commander of Engineering Battalion 603, said his battalion had used 300 kilograms of explosives to destroy two bunkers discovered on the Israeli side of the border near Biranit. Each of the bunkers measured five-by-seven meters and contained stockpiles of food and clothing. "The bunkers were most probably part of a larger system that we have yet to completely discover," said Pukar. "They were in the middle of construction and were used to observe IDF deployment along the border." Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.