Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has threatened to strike Israeli cities including Tel Aviv with precision-guided missiles in a video released on social media this week.
In the video, Nasrallah, the Secretary General of the Hezbollah terror group, is heard claiming that “today, we can not only hit the city of Tel Aviv but also, if God wants and with his help, can hit very precise targets within Tel Aviv”.
The video showed satellite images of various targets in Israel and alleged coordinates of Israeli military sites. Hebrew and Arabic text in the video warned: “Whatever you do to block the way – it’s over. Mission Accomplished”.
Hezbollah is believed to have amassed an arsenal of up to 150,000 rockets in southern Lebanon – over ten times more than it had in the 2006 war. The rockets include hundreds of long-range Iranian-made missiles capable of striking Israeli cities from north to south, as well as systems with improved accuracy.
Hezbollah forces in Syria have improved their operational and tactical combat skills, trained and equipped thousands of militants as part of its growing network of Shi’a militias, and stockpiled a substantial arsenal of weapons including guided missiles, unmanned armed drones, short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles, and possibly chemical weapons.
The terror group’s criminal activities in Europe include drug trafficking, money-laundering, producing counterfeit currency and raising funds for its military activities.
The UK Government proscribed the Hezbollah terror group in full in February last year, citing its “destabilising activities in the region” and commitment to “armed resistance to the State of Israel”.
The UK’s decision to designate Hezbollah as a terror organisation in full came after cross-party parliamentarians regularly called for the group to be banned, in particular raising their concerns about the waving of Hezbollah flags on the streets of London at the annual Al-Quds Day rally.
In April, Germany joined the UK, the US, Canada and the Netherlands in banning the terror group.
