(Breitbart) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Wednesday that it had seized over 85,000 weapons that had been amassed by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
The weapons ranged from light rifles to rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles.
In a statement the IDF said:
At the beginning of October 2024, the IDF began limited, localized, targeted ground raids to dismantle Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
As part of the operations led by the IDF Northern Command, the forces operated against Hezbollah in more than 30 areas across southern Lebanon. The troops identified and destroyed terrorist infrastructure, eliminated terrorists, and located and confiscated numerous weapons.
The IDF confiscated over 85,000 weapons, missiles, and military items, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, RPGs, rifles, explosives, munitions, anti-aircraft missiles, observation devices, and military vehicles. A large exhibition of the weapons confiscated is currently on display.
The confiscated weapons were used by Hezbollah to attack Israeli civilians and were intended to be deployed as part of Hezbollah’s ‘Conquer the Galilee’ invasion plan. Hezbollah’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded as a result of the IDF’s ground raids.
The IDF also provided photos of some of the seized weapons:
The haul is much larger and more sophisticated than the weapons seized from Hamas after the October 7 terror attack, which were reviewed by Breitbart News over a year ago at a military base in central Israel.
The IDF also estimated Tuesday that it halled killed 3,800 Hezbollah operatives in the war, including 44 since a ceasefire began several weeks ago. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to take steps to defend itself, and Hezbollah operatives have been caught trying to infiltrate back into southern Lebanon or to put weapons into place.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.