Lebanon’s Hezbollah: What weapons does it have?

Fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah carry out a training exercise in Aaramta village in the Jezzine District, southern Lebanon, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 20 June 2024
Follow

Lebanon’s Hezbollah: What weapons does it have?

  • Many of the Shiite Muslim group’s weapons are Iranian, Russian or Chinese models

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah has drawn on an expanded arsenal in ongoing hostilities with Israel, with leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah saying in a speech on Wednesday the Iran-backed group had obtained new weapons.
He did not identify the new weapons, but said they would “emerge in the field.”
Hezbollah’s latest conflict with Israel, which has raged in parallel with the Gaza war, has raised concerns of further escalation between the regional enemies, which last fought a major war in 2006.
Here is a snapshot of Hezbollah’s arsenal:

AN OVERVIEW
Hezbollah’s military strength is underpinned by upwards of 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types and ranges, according to the World Factbook of the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Hezbollah says it has rockets that can hit all areas of Israel. Many of them are unguided, but it also has precision missiles, drones and anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles.
Hezbollah’s main supporter and weapons supplier is Iran. Analysts say Tehran sends arms to the group by land via Iraq and Syria, both Middle Eastern countries where Iran has close ties and influence. Many of the Shiite Muslim group’s weapons are Iranian, Russian or Chinese models.
Nasrallah said in 2021 the group has 100,000 fighters. The CIA World Factbook says it was estimated in 2022 to have up to 45,000 fighters, split between roughly 20,000 full-time and 25,000 reserve personnel.

ANTI-TANK MISSILES
Hezbollah used guided anti-tank missiles extensively in the 2006 war. It has deployed guided rockets again in the latest hostilities. These include the Russian-made Kornet.
Hezbollah has also used an Iranian-made guided missile known as “al-Mas,” according to a report by the pro-Iran Arabic broadcaster Al-Mayadeen.
A report by Israel’s Alma Research and Education Center published in April described the Al-Mas as an anti-tank weapon that can hit targets beyond the line of sight following an arched trajectory, enabling it to strike from above.
The missile is part of a family of weapons made by Iran through reverse engineering based on the Israeli Spike missile family, the report said. It said the missile was a “flagship product” of Iran’s defense industry in Hezbollah’s possession.
ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES
Hezbollah said on June 6 it had fired at an Israeli warplane. A source familiar with its arsenal said it was the first time the group had done so, calling it a milestone, while declining to identify the weapon used.
Hezbollah has also shot down Israeli drones during this conflict using surface-to-air missiles.
The first such incident was on Oct. 29 when Hezbollah for the first time said it had used anti-aircraft weaponry it had long been thought to have.
Hezbollah has used such missiles several times since, downing Israeli Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 drones.

DRONES
Hezbollah has repeatedly launched explosive one-way drones, including in some of its more complicated attacks. It launched some to distract Israeli air defenses, while explosives-laden drones were flown at targets.
More recently, the group has announced attacks that use drones that drop bombs and return to Lebanon, rather than just flying at their targets.
Hezbollah’s drones include what it says are the locally-assembled Ayoub and Mersad models, which analysts say are cheap and relatively easy to produce.

LAND-ATTACK ROCKETS AND MISSILES
Unguided rockets comprised the bulk of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal in the last war with Israel in 2006, when the group fired about 4,000 of them into Israel — mostly Russian-made Katyusha-style missiles with a range of up to 30 km (19 miles).
Nasrallah has said the biggest change in Hezbollah’s arsenal since 2006 is the expansion of its precision guidance systems.
In 2022, he said Hezbollah had the ability within Lebanon to retrofit thousands of rockets with guidance systems to make them precision missiles.
Hezbollah has Iranian models, such as Raad (Arabic for Thunder), Fajr (Dawn) and Zilzal (Earthquake) rockets, which have a more powerful payload and longer range than Katyushas.
Rockets fired by Hezbollah at Israel during the Gaza conflict since October have included Katyushas and Burkan (volcano) missiles with an explosive payload of 300-500 kg.
Its Iranian-made Falaq 2 rockets it used for the first time on June 8, could carry a bigger warhead than the Falaq 1 used in the past.
Hinting at the damage it could do, Nasrallah in 2016 made a veiled threat that Hezbollah could hit ammonia storage tanks in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, saying the result would be “like a nuclear bomb.”

ANTI-SHIP MISSILES
Hezbollah first proved it had anti-ship missiles in 2006, when it hit an Israeli warship 16 km (10 miles) off the coast, killing four Israeli personnel and damaging the vessel.
Since the 2006 war, Hezbollah has acquired the Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missile with a range of 300 km (186 miles), sources familiar with its arsenal say. Hezbollah has not confirmed it has the weapon.
Hezbollah has also broadcast videos that it says show more of the same type of anti-ship missile used in 2006.

 


Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials

Updated 58 min ago
Follow

Sudan volunteers help families give Khartoum war dead proper burials

  • Teams of workers in dust-streaked white hazmat suits comb vacant lots, looking for the spots where survivors say they buried their loved ones
  • Each body is disinfected, wrapped and labelled by Red Crescent volunteers before being transported to Al-Andalus cemetery

KHARTOUM: In Sudan’s war-scarred capital Khartoum, Red Crescent volunteers have begun the grisly task of exhuming the dead from makeshift plots where they were buried during the fighting so their families can give them a proper funeral.

Teams of workers in dust-streaked white hazmat suits comb vacant lots, looking for the spots where survivors say they buried their loved ones.

Mechanical diggers peel back layers of earth under the watchful eye of Hisham Zein Al-Abdeen, head of the city’s forensic medicine department.

“We’re finding graves everywhere – in front of homes, inside schools and mosques,” he said, surveying the scene.

“Every day we discover new ones.”

Here, in the southern neighborhood of Al-Azhari, families buried their loved ones wherever they could, as fighting raged between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

When war broke out in April 2023, the RSF quickly swept through Khartoum, occupying entire districts as residents fled air and artillery bombardments and street fighting.

In March, the army and its allies recaptured the capital in a fierce offensive.

It is only now, after the front lines of the conflict moved elsewhere, that bereaved families can give their loved ones a proper burial.

“My daughter was only 12,” said Jawaher Adam, standing by a shallow makeshift grave, tears streaming down her face.

“I had only sent her out to buy shoes when she died. We couldn’t take her to the cemetery. We buried her in the neighborhood,” she said.

Months on, Adam has come to witness her daughter’s reburial – this time, she says, with dignity.

Each body is disinfected, wrapped and labelled by Red Crescent volunteers before being transported to Al-Andalus cemetery, 10 kilometers (six miles) away.

“It’s painful,” said Adam, “but to honor the dead is to give them a proper burial.”

Many of the war’s deadliest battlegrounds have been densely populated residential districts, often without access to hospitals to care for the wounded or count the dead.

That has made it nearly impossible to establish a firm death toll for the war.

Former US envoy Tom Perriello has said that some estimates suggest up to 150,000 people were killed in the conflict’s first year alone.

In the capital, more than 61,000 people died during the first 14 months of war – a 50 percent increase on the pre-war death rate – according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Of those deaths, 26,000 were attributed to violence.

At first glance, the vacant lot in Al-Azhari where Red Crescent volunteers are digging seems to be full of litter – pieces of wood, bricks, an old signpost.

Look more closely, however, and it becomes clear they have been placed in straight lines, each one marking a makeshift grave.

Volunteers exhumed 317 graves in that one lot, Zein Al-Abdeen said.

Similar mass graves have been uncovered across the capital, he said, with 2,000 bodies reburied so far.

But his team estimates there could be 10,000 bodies buried in makeshift graves across the city.

At the exhumation site, grieving mothers watch on silently, their hands clasped tightly to their chest.

They, like Adam, are among the lucky few who know where their loved ones are buried. Many do not.

At least 8,000 people were reported missing in Sudan last year, in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is only “the tip of the iceberg.”

For now, authorities label unclaimed bodies, and keep their details on file.

With the bodies now exhumed, the community can have some degree of closure, and the vacant lot can be repurposed.

“Originally, this site was designated as a school,” said Youssef Mohamed Al-Amin, executive director of Jebel Awliya district.

“We’re moving the bodies so it can serve its original purpose.”

The United Nations estimates that up to two million people may return to Khartoum state by the end of the year – but much depends on whether security and basic services can be restored.

Before the war, greater Khartoum was home to nine million people, according to the UN Development Programme, but the conflict has displaced at least 3.5 million.

For now, much of the capital remains without power or running water, as hospitals and schools lie in ruins.


Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City

Updated 09 August 2025
Follow

Foreign ministers of five countries condemn Israeli plan to seize Gaza City

  • Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, escalating military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory

GAZA: The foreign ministers of Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom on Friday strongly condemned the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to launch a new large-scale military operation in Gaza.
“The plans that the Government of Israel has announced risk violating international humanitarian law,” the ministers said in a joint statement.
Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, escalating military operations in the devastated Palestinian territory. The move drew renewed criticism at home and abroad on Friday, as concerns mounted over the nearly two-year-old war. 

 


Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal

Updated 09 August 2025
Follow

Turkiye hails US-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan deal

  • “At a time when international conflicts and crises are intensifying, this step constitutes a highly significant development for the promotion of regional peace and stability

ISTANBUL: Turkiye hailed an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan as progress toward a “lasting peace” on Friday after US President Donald Trump declared the foes had committed to permanently end hostilities.
“We welcome the progress achieved toward establishing a lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the commitment recorded in Washington today in this regard,” Turkiye’s foreign ministry said, in a statement.
“At a time when international conflicts and crises are intensifying, this step constitutes a highly significant development for the promotion of regional peace and stability. We commend the contributions of the US administration in this process.”

 


Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says

Updated 08 August 2025
Follow

Hunger and disease spreading in war-torn Sudan, WHO says

  • 770,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year

LONDON: Hunger and disease are spreading in war-torn Sudan, with famine already present in several areas, 25 million people acutely food insecure, and nearly 100,000 cholera cases recorded since last July, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Sudan’s conflict between the army and rival Rapid Support Forces has displaced millions and split the country into rival zones of control, with the RSF still deeply embedded in western Sudan, and funding cuts are hampering humanitarian aid.
“Relentless violence has pushed Sudan’s health system to the edge, adding to a crisis marked by hunger, illness, and despair,” WHO Senior Emergency Officer Ilham Nour said in a statement.

BACKGROUND

Cholera has hit a camp for Darfur refugees in neighboring eastern Chad, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

“Exacerbating the disease burden is hunger,” she said, adding that about 770,000 children under 5 years old are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.
Cholera has also hit a camp for Darfur refugees in eastern Chad, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
The World Health Organization said nearly 100,000 cholera cases had been reported in Sudan since July last year.
An outbreak in the Dougui refugee settlement has so far resulted in 264 cases and 12 deaths, said Patrice Ahouansou, UNHCR’s situation coordinator in the region, leading the agency to suspend the relocation of refugees from the border with Sudan to prevent new cases.
“Without urgent action, including enhancing access to medical treatment, to clean water, to sanitation, to hygiene, and most importantly, relocation from the border, many more lives are on the line,” Ahouansou told a briefing in Geneva.
Oral cholera vaccination campaigns had been conducted in several states, including the capital Khartoum, he told a press conference with the Geneva UN correspondents’ association ACANU.
“While we are seeing a declining trend in numbers, there are gaps in disease surveillance, and progress is fragile,” he said.
“Recent floods, affecting large parts of the country, are expected to worsen hunger and fuel more outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue, and other diseases.”
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with bacteria, often from feces. It causes severe diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps.
Cholera can kill within hours when not attended to, though it can be treated with simple oral rehydration and antibiotics for more severe cases.
There has been a global increase in cholera cases and their geographical spread since 2021.
“In Sudan, unrelenting violence has led to widespread hunger, disease, and suffering,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Cholera has swept across Sudan, with all states reporting outbreaks. Nearly 100,000 cases have been reported since July last year.”
As for hunger, Tedros said there were reports from El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state, that people were eating animal feed to survive.
“In the first six months of this year, nutrition centers supported by WHO have treated more than 17,000 severely malnourished children with medical complications. But many more are beyond reach,” Tedros warned.

The UN health agency’s efforts were being hindered by limited access and a lack of funding, he added, with the WHO having received less than a third of the money it had appealed for to provide urgent health assistance in Sudan.
The WHO director-general said that as long as the violence continues in Sudan, “we can expect to see more hunger, more displacement and more disease.”

 


Plans to take Gaza City are met with defiance from war-weary Palestinians and anger by many Israelis

Updated 08 August 2025
Follow

Plans to take Gaza City are met with defiance from war-weary Palestinians and anger by many Israelis

  • “What does (Israel) want from us? ... There is nothing here to occupy,” said a woman in Gaza City
  • Ruby Chen, a dual US-Israeli citizen whose son, Itay, is a hostage held in Gaza, told AP that the decision puts the remaining hostages in danger

TEL AVIV: Israel’s decision to take over Gaza City was met with resignation and defiance by Palestinians who have survived two years of war and repeated raids. Many Israelis responded with fear and anger, worried it could be a death sentence for hostages held in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israel would intensify its 22-month war with Hamas by taking over Gaza City, large parts of which have been destroyed by past bombardment and ground incursions.

A major ground operation is almost sure to cause more mass displacement and worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

“What does (Israel) want from us? ... There is nothing here to occupy,” said a woman in Gaza City who identified herself as Umm Youssef. “There is no life here. I have to walk every day for more than 15 minutes to get drinking water.”

Ruby Chen, a dual US-Israeli citizen whose son, Itay, is a hostage held in Gaza, told The Associated Press that the decision puts the remaining hostages in danger.

“What is the plan now that is different from the last 22 months?” he said.

Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and harsh critic of Netanyahu, told the AP “there’s not any objective that can be achieved that’s worth the cost of the lives of the hostages, the soldiers” and civilians, echoing concerns expressed by many former top security officials in Israel.

‘I will die here’

Netanyahu says military pressure is key to achieving Israel’s war goals of returning all the hostages and destroying Hamas. On Thursday, he told Fox News that Israel intends to eventually take over all of Gaza and hand it over to a friendly Arab civilian administration.

But Hamas has survived nearly two years of war and several large-scale ground operations, including in Gaza City. In a statement, the militant group said the people of Gaza would “remain defiant against occupation” and warned Israel that the incursion “will not be a walk in the park.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled Gaza City in the opening weeks of the war, the first of several mass displacements. Many returned during a ceasefire earlier this year. Now, residents say they are too busy searching for food and trying to survive amid the city’s bombed-out buildings and tent camps to think about another exodus.

“I have no intention to leave my home, I will die here,” said Kamel Abu Nahel from the city’s urban Shati refugee camp.

Israel already controls and has largely destroyed around 75 percent of the Gaza Strip, with most of its population of some 2 million Palestinians now sheltering in Gaza City, the central city of Deir Al-Balah and the sprawling displacement camps in the Muwasi area along the coast.

The offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. It says women and children make up around half the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of casualties, while Israel disputes them.

Ismail Zaydah said he and his family had remained in Gaza City throughout the war.

“This is our land, there is no other place for us to go,” he said. “We are not surrendering ... We were born here, and here we die.”

‘This madman called Netanyahu’

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Though most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals, 50 are still in Gaza, less than half of them believed by Israel to be alive.

Relatives of many of the hostages and their supporters have repeatedly protested against the continuation of the war, demanding that Israel reach a ceasefire with Hamas that would include the return of their loved ones. The long-running talks broke down last month.

“Somebody’s got to stop this madman called Netanyahu,” said Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is held hostage. He said faith in the United States to help is also dwindling. “I lost hope with Donald Trump ... he’s letting Netanyahu just do whatever he likes,” he said.

But other Israelis voiced support for the decision.

“They need to go after Hamas,” said Susan Makin, a Tel Aviv resident. “Why are they not asking why Hamas has not given back the hostages and put (down) their arms?”

The agony around the plight of the hostages has worsened in recent days as Palestinians militants have released videos showing two of the captives emaciated and pleading for their lives. Families fear their loved ones, who may be held in other parts of Gaza, are running out time.

Amir Avivi, a retired Israeli general and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, said there are a few hostages in Gaza City and the army will have to decide how to manage the situation.

He said they might be able to surround the hostages and negotiate directly with their captors or leave those areas untouched. Under pressure, Hamas might decide to release the captives, he said.

That strategy carries great risk. Last year, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages who were killed by their captors when troops approached the tunnel where they were being held.