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in 2024, with the rebels in Syria mostly subdued, hundreds of Hezbollah combatants were still operating there. Israeli officials said that Iran had mounted a long campaign to “Lebanize” Syria, by attempting to build a Shiite militia similar to Hezbollah, with fighters principally from Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Since 2016, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria. In April, one of them killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who oversaw Iranian efforts in Lebanon and Syria, and who reportedly served on Hezbollah’s leadership council. His death prompted Iran to fire more than three hundred missiles and drones at Israel.

We can put a missile into the flat where Bibi is meeting with his ministers.” He brushed aside concerns of a counterattack, describing a vast network of protective tunnels. “We have tunnels for cars, tunnels for trucks, tunnels for railroad cars,” he said. I asked Hassan how the war between Hezbollah and the Israelis could ever be resolved. “Very simple,” he said. “When they leave on the same boat they came in on.”

Israel and Hezbollah carried out a combined total of 7,491 cross-border attacks between Oct. 8, 2023 and July 5, 2024, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). Hezbollah was responsible for more than 1,200 of the incidents.

By late July 2024, Hezbollah had launched more than 6,000 rockets and 300 drones at Israel, killing 24 civilians and 22 Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah primarily targeted Israeli military bases and towns along the border as well as civilian communities in the Galilee. More than 60,000 civilian residents of northern Israel evacuated, and at least 1,500 buildings and other structures were badly damaged.

Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles, most with a range of a few dozen kilometers. Various reports, however, say a substantial number can reach targets located hundreds of kilometers from Lebanon.

Hezbollah is the most heavily armed non-state actor in the world, concluded researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in an extensive 2018 report on the lethal arsenal stationed just north of Israel. The group holds a large and diverse reserve of "dumb" rocket artillery alongside ballistic, anti-air, anti-tank, and anti-ship missiles, the report found.