The smuggling route is overseen and used by Iran to arm Hezbollah, with the tacit cooperation of the Syrian authorities. Senior officials in Syria assist in the weapons smuggling effort using two main methods: storing weapons prior to their transfer to Lebanon in Syrian military warehouses, and facilitating transfers through internal crossings within Syria that are managed by the Syrian Military Security Unit.
This effort is led by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400. Established in 2000, the unit is responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanon from Iran and its proxies and developing numerous strategic smuggling routes along the Syria-Lebanon border.
During the war, the IDF has conducted extensive intelligence-based operations against Unit 4400 and various weapons smuggling routes. These include the elimination of the commander of Unit 4400, Muhammad Ja’far Qasir, in early October in Beirut, and his designated successor, Ali Hassan Gharib, a few weeks later in Damascus. The weapons smuggling routes that pass through Syria into Lebanon were not only targeted in the last few months, but also over the years as part of a long-term effort by the IDF.
A series of strikes that disrupted attempts to transfer weapons through Syrian territory to Hezbollah in Lebanon are now cleared for publication. In this series of strikes, which were made possible due to precise intelligence gathered and developed over many years, the IDF targeted Hezbollah’s ability to expand its weapons arsenal, thereby preventing the terrorist organization from launching further attacks against Israeli civilians.
The IDF says that it will continue to operate to locate and thwart any attempt by the Iranian regime to arm its proxies in the Middle East.
