On August 3rd, the authoritative Middle East News Line confirmed that Iran acknowledged the supply of long-range missiles to Hizbullah. A senior Iranian official, Hujjat Mokhtashemi-Pour, said Hizbullah has obtained the Zelzal-2, which he said contained a range of 250 kilometers.

“Hizbullah acquired some of its expertise and capabilities on the Iranian front,” Mokhtashemi-Pour told the Iranian daily Sharq. “Most of Hizbullah’s trained forces fought in the [Iran-Iraq] war for eight years. Here in Lebanon, they take part in operations directly or covertly.”

Indeed, Hizbullah has fulfilled its pledge to fire rockets that threaten Israel’s commercial center.

On Friday night, August 4th, Hizbullah fired long-range rockets that landed in the Israeli city of Hadera, about 40 kilometers north of Tel Aviv. The rocket landings on August 4 marked the deepest penetration by Hizbullah in the 25-day-old war.

The Hizbullah attacks have sparked concern in Tel Aviv, which contains the military’s high command and which hosts Israel’s leading corporations. companies. Over the weekend, Israeli authorities began to prepare bomb shelters for Tel Aviv residents.

These rocket strikes came as the United Nations Security Council prepared to vote on a draft resolution for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The resolution, authored by France and the United States, called for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon.

Israel has widened its ground offensive in Lebanon in expectation of a halt in fighting by the middle of the week. Thousands of fresh troops have been sent into Lebanon as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz were said to have disputed the goals of the military operation.

So far, Hizbullah has struck Israel with more than 3,000 Iranian- and Syrian-origin rockets, the military said on Saturday.

Since Israeli intelligence estimates that Hizbullah had more than 12,000 missiles at the inception of this conflict on July 12th, a simple mathematic calculation would show that Israel has not begun to eliminate the missile capacity of Hizbullah.

Israel has sought to attack Hizbullah command centers in southern Lebanon. Over the weekend, navy special operations units entered the Lebanese city of Tyre and struck a Hizbullah rocket center. The military said the center launched the rockets that struck Hadera. At least eight Israeli soldiers were reported injured. And five Israeli soliders were killed over the weekend.

“During the operation, forces killed a number of Hizbullah terrorists responsible for launching long-range rockets into Israel, including the launching of the rockets that hit Hadera,” a military statement said.

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