While War With Hamas Rages On, A Far More Deadly Hezbollah Shadows Israel’s Border

As Israeli forces struggle to quash Hamas in Gaza — in a war that’s engulfed the region for nearly a year — a more potent, dangerous threat is looming over Israel’s border in the form of Hezbollah.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in tit-for-tat skirmishes over the Israeli-Lebanese border since Oct. 7, the date Hamas invaded Israel and Israel subsequently invaded Gaza, but mounting tensions in June and July have driven the two adversaries further into conflict, raising the specter of a full-scale war. Hezbollah has greater manpower, weapons and funding available to it than Hamas has — or any of Iran’s other terror proxy groups — making it a more dangerous threat to Israel and the broader stability of the Middle East region, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Long War Journal.

“ both operate as hybrid movements, but in terms of quality, terms of their arms, in terms of training, in terms of the quality of the individual fighter, I would say Hezbollah is exponentially more powerful,” David Daoud, senior fellow on Middle Eastern affairs at FDD, told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation. “They will pose much more of a challenge to the Israelis.”

Hezbollah is estimated to have access to over 150,000 rocket, missile, drone and mortar variants, some of which have been stockpiled for decades, according to FDD’s Long War Journal. Among those are between 40,000 and 80,000 short-range rockets that could be used in cross-border attacks against Israel, and between 60,000 and 80,000 longer-range rockets capable of striking deep inside Israeli territory.

Hezbollah also possesses precision-guided missiles capable of narrowly lasering in on its targets, allowing the terror group to potentially use fewer missiles overall to inflict damage on critical sites inside of Israel, according to FDD’s Long War Journal. Hezbollah has leaned on