“This endangers the lives of 300 children who attend the school,” said the IDF.
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
The Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday that it has located a Hezbollah weapons warehouse 25 meters from a school “in the heart of the Lebanese civilian population.”
“This endangers the lives of 300 children who attend the school,” the IDF tweeted, along with the warehouse’s GPS coordinates and an aerial photograph depicting the building directly across the street from the school in the town of Ebba in southern Lebanon.
“Hezbollah doesn’t want you to RT [retweet] this, but these innocent children need you to,” the IDF said, hinting that widespread publication of the warehouse’s location may motivate the terror organization to relocate the weapons.
“Hezbollah consistently uses civilian assets as an operational tactic for military activity,” the IDF said in a separate statement, noting the existence of “thousands of similar Hezbollah targets that endanger the citizens of Lebanon.”
“The IDF and the Northern Command will take all measures to reduce harm to civilians, but yet the IDF will not hesitate to strike active targets,” the statement said.
The military believes that Hezbollah intends to use the weapons against IDF soldiers and the civilian population of Israel.
The IDF also released an animated video illustrating the location of the warehouse in relation to the school. The warehouse is depicted as containing rockets, explosives, and other military weaponry.
In a January address to Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said that a future war with Hezbollah will “not be simple.”
“The enemy has chosen to place its weapons, missiles and rockets among urban areas exploiting the local population as human shields,” he said.
Kochavi indicated that Israel would strike missile-launching and weapons-storage sites, whether they are located in the open or among other buildings.
“We will only strike military targets. But a rocket next to a house is a military target,” Kochavi said.