IDF Gears Up for Possible Ground Operation with Russian-Armed Hezbollah

According to one Kuwaiti paper, the Russians have armed Hezbollah with Soviet-era tanks, despite the fact that Putin reportedly did not oppose Netanyahu’s statement that Israel would act “to thwart the deadly weapons transfers from the Syrian army to Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah is the militant Islamic terror organization operating out of Lebanon with the financial backing of Iran and Syria. The folks who hate Israel and view the ISIS rebellion against the Syrian government as a “Zionist conspiracy” are being armed by Russia with tanks. Granted, Soviet-era tanks, but tanks nonetheless.

Russia has joined with Syria and Iran to create a “joint operations room” to address the Islamic State uprising:

The newspaper quotes official sources as saying that each party will be responsible for particular areas of Syria, with Russia operating in Latakia, Hama and some parts of the Aleppo province, while Iran will be defending the capital Damascus and down to Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. The report also states that some 100 Iranian special forces trained in urban warfare have arrived in Damascus.

As a result, Israel is preparing for potential terror attacks along the border with Syria:

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces has been preparing for a possible ground operation on the Syrian side of the Golan in the event of sustained rocket strikes or coordinated terror attacks against Israel either by Sunni jihadists or Hezbollah.

The number of Islamists flooding into the area close to the border with Israel has the IDF on high alert, Channel 2 reported last month, adding that the military had held a large-scale drill simulating a possible advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from border communities.

The news comes shortly after Netanyahu’s visit to the Kremlin. During the visit, he confronted Putin directly about Iranian and Syrian arms transfers to Hezbollah and the potential for those weapons to be used against Israel. Putin dismissed the idea, stating that Syria was too busy fighting against ISIS to fight “on another front.”