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Israeli Navy Intelligence Chief Warns of Hizbullah’s Ability to Attack Ports, Oil Rigs

The Israeli navy's intelligence chief has said that militant groups close to the Jewish state, including Hizbullah and Hamas, are in possession of missiles capable of hitting all Israeli ports and offshore infrastructure such as oil rigs.

Brigadier General Yaron Levi spoke about the matter on Tuesday at a conference in Tel Aviv University, said Israeli daily Haaretz.

Levi reminded the audience that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recently said that if Israel imposes a naval siege on Lebanon as part of another war, the Shiite party will target Israeli facilities at sea.

"You don't need to be genius to know where our oil rigs are," Haaretz quoted him as saying. "I'm sure you can find their location on the internet."

“Any damage to them would be critical," Levi warned.

He told the conference that Hizbullah has Iranian-made surface-to-sea missiles, and may also obtain Russian-made rockets from Syria. These missiles, he said, have a range that "covers all of Israel's ports, our economic waters and a large part of the shipping lines to Israel."

“In the future, we will have to deal with missiles, torpedoes, mines, above-surface weapons and underwater ones, both in Gaza and Lebanon,” Levi said after warning that Hizbullah’s model "is being copied today to the Gaza Strip.”


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