International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 18 Jul 2008

Reports indicate Hizbullah has been expanding its military presence into southern Lebanese villages with non-Shi’ite populations by purchasing land and establishing fortifications and missile launch sites.

Under its post-war strategy, Hizbullah stopped hiding most of its Katyusha rocket launchers in forested "nature reserves" in southern Lebanon and started building facilities in non-Shi’ite villages against their wills, according to IDF sources.

The new UNIFIL mandate drafted by the UN Security Council after the Second Lebanon War in 2006 is a main reason for the change. Currently, UN peacekeeping troops are allowed to patrol rural areas of south Lebanon but cannot go into villages without an escort from the Lebanese army, which often forewarns Hizbullah of any possible inspections.

Hizbullah’s new strategy comes as Israel is urging the UN to amend the UNIFIL mandate to allow its peacekeepers to freely patrol the villages as well. "Hizbullah is moving into every town that it can," a top defense official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "This is in order to evade UNIFIL detection."

With this week's prisoner swap now complete, the IDF has heightened its alert level on the northern border in anticipation that Hizbullah will try to retaliate for the death of its top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated last February in Damascus.

Meanwhile, Lebanese citizens are complaining of receiving recorded warnings of "harsh retaliation" from Israel on the phone if Hizbullah attacks. The automated messages warn against Hizbullah creating "a state within a state" in Lebanon, and sign off by identifying the caller as "the State of Israel."

Israel has yet to respond to reports of the recorded messages, which also occured during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

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