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‘State-of-the-art’ Russian weapons found in Hezbollah bases, Israeli PM Netanyahu says

The militants have dug hundreds of tunnels and caches in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani river, the prime minister says

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York in September. Photo: dpa
Agence France-Presse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a French newspaper that Israeli forces had found “state-of-the-art” Russian weapons in searches of Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon.

Netanyahu highlighted to Le Figaro newspaper, in an interview released on Wednesday, that under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution only the Lebanese army was allowed to have weapons south of the country’s key Litani river.

“However, in this area, Hezbollah has dug hundreds of tunnels and caches, where we have just found a quantity of state-of-the-art Russian weapons,” the French article quoted Netanyahu as saying.

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The Washington Post, quoting Israeli officials, has reported that Russian and Chinese anti-tank weapons had been found in Israel’s raids inside Lebanon since it escalated its conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah last month.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an Agence France-Presse question about the prime minister’s comments.

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