'Current stability in North could be shattered'

Top IDF officer: Calm in danger; footage shows Hizbullah trying to salvage rockets from arms cache.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Hizbullah 248.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Hizbullah 248.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The current stability in the North is "in danger," Deputy OC Northern Command Brig.-Gen. Alon Friedman was quoted by the Times as saying Tuesday, adding that the peace could "explode at any minute." Meanwhile, surveillance footage obtained by the British newspaper shows Hizbullah fighters trying to salvage rockets and other munitions from the suspected arms cache that exploded last month in southern Lebanon. The video shows rockets and other munitions being retrieved from the bombed site, and a truck moving rockets from the apparent weapons depot. It then shows Hizbullah operatives emerging from an underground bunker. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, told the Security Council last week that the July 14 explosions that exposed the apparent Hizbullah arms cache demonstrated a "volatile reality" and reflected the threat posed by Iran throughout the Middle East. Hizbullah is believed to have stockpiled up to 40,000 rockets, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the Times that "Hizbullah has not only replaced the munitions but upgraded their missiles. They are bragging now that they can hit Tel Aviv." Western intelligence sources have told the UK paper that Hizbullah fighters are also receiving training in Syria on the radar-guided SA-8 missile system. Hizbullah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem boasted to the British paper that "Hizbullah today is in a better condition than it was in July 2006. And if the Israelis think they will cause more damage against us, they know that we also can inflict more damage on them."