IDF is discovering so much Hezbollah weaponry that it considers forming new unit with captured weapons – report

Israel Defense Forces has uncovered so much high-quality Hezbollah weaponry across southern Lebanon that it is considering using the captured weapons to create and equip a new anti-tank missile unit, Israel Hayom reported.

Since the IDF began its “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” in southern Lebanon last month, footage released by the military unveiled unfathomable amounts of weapons and ammunition stored just several kilometers from the Israeli border.

Israeli troops have reported discovering weapons depots or ammunition in nearly every home in some villages.

Among the most frequently discovered weapons systems are various types of anti-tank missiles and launchers, including many advanced models manufactured in Russia and Iran.

According to the Israel Hayom report, the IDF is now considering the possibility of creating new anti-tank units using weapons captured from Hezbollah, which include tens of thousands of Russian Kornet and Iranian Almas anti-tank missiles, roughly equivalent to the Israeli Gil missile manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

The IDF said it has uncovered approximately 2,500 anti-tank missiles and launchers so far.

1 month recap of limited, localized & targeted IDF operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon: pic.twitter.com/TIV0GPKFnW

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 1, 2024

Faced with massive quantities of weapons found in Hezbollah’s depots, the IDF at first considered detonating the arsenal. However, ultimately the decision was made to transport significant portions of the weapons to Israel.

For example, in a recent raid on the town Kafr Kila, the amount of weapons and ammunition discovered required dozens of trucks to transport them to Israel.

🔎 LOOK at what our troops found and dismantled in the village of Kfarkela—one of Hezbollah’s main strongholds in southern Lebanon: pic.twitter.com/dIddkbPYIj

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 28, 2024

Another recent operation uncovered 11 truckloads of explosives and ammunition in another Hezbollah compound.

“There is an amount of ammunition that’s enough for a company here,” said the brigade commander in a short video clip released by the IDF.

11 truckloads of weapons were found by our troops in 2 underground terrorist compounds in southern Lebanon.

Kornet missiles, launchers, hand grenades, various types of rifles, and other weapons were seized and brought back to Israel.

Like any other country would, we will… pic.twitter.com/Y8CXEjl3bX

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 25, 2024

While speaking with the French newspaper Le Figaro two weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that IDF soldiers had found “a quantity of state-of-the-art Russian weapons.”

The Russian Konkurs and Kornet missiles were some of Hezbollah’s most often used weapons to attack Israeli towns and IDF bases over the past months.

According to media reports, the Russian weapons were transferred to Hezbollah forces from the Syrian regime, whose military is based on Russian and old Soviet weaponry.

Reports that the IDF is considering basing new units on the captured weapons underline the high quality of Iran’s weapons production.

According to Alma Research Center, an Israeli security think tank, Hezbollah has used two Iranian variants of the Kornet. One has a range of 8 km (about 5 miles) with a double warhead designed to evade the IDF’s “Trophy” active protection system for armored vehicles.

The second model has a range of up to 10 km (about 6 miles) and wields a high-explosive/thermobaric warhead, which can cause severe damage in closed spaces via high-temperature explosions and shockwaves.

The Iranian-made “Almas” (diamond) is the product of reverse engineering after Hezbollah captured an Israeli spike missile during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and sent it to Iran.

The Almas missile is an even more advanced system than the Kornet. Its newest model boasts extended ranges of up to 16 km (almost 10 miles) and can be fired on a ballistic trajectory, making it possible to hit targets out of the direct line of sight.