The arrest of Lebanese drug trafficker Noah Zaiter coincided with Israeli media reports claiming that weapons were once again being smuggled from Syria into Lebanon, and that Hezbollah had “restored its military capabilities.” The group not only did not deny these reports, but its Secretary-General publicly declared that Hezbollah had “recovered well” and that its fighters “are the on battlefield.” However, the timing of Zaiter’s arrest is significant. Thee U.S. Treasury had added him to its sanctions list, describing him as a “drug trafficker and arms smuggler” closely tied to the Fourth Division of the Syrian army which was led by Maher al-Assad, brother of the deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The Treasury Department also said Zaiter was also closely linked to senior Hezbollah figures. His designation was not solely because of his involvement in the narcotics trade, but also on grounds of weapons trafficking and providing financial and technical support and services to Hezbollah.
Over the past few months, Israel repeatedly claimed that Hezbollah continued to receive smuggled weapons via Syria. In mid-November, an Israeli army spokesperson told Reuters that Hezbollah was “actively trying to move weapons from Syria and other routes into Lebanon,” adding that Israel was working to block these attempts and had “largely succeeded in closing the land corridors from Syria, but that the situation continues to pose a threat”. The Israeli Alma Research Center echoed this assessment. In a report titled “The General State of Hezbollah’s Military Rehabilitation in Lebanon,” the center stated that the group carries out “weekly attempts to smuggle light and medium weapons from Syria to Lebanon,” despite the collapse of what used to be an expansive land corridor across Syria, it added.
According to Alma, the smuggled shipments include, among other weapons, “hundreds of advanced Kornet anti-tank missiles and Grad rockets,”. The center says that “several shipments have successfully ended up in Lebanon”. While smuggling small systems, such as Kornet missiles (each is roughly 120 cm long) may be feasible using small transport vehicles, many observers believe smuggling larger missile systems has become significantly more difficult for Hezbollah. The Alma report also points to major heavy missiles depots that Hezbollah maintains in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, near the Syrian border: “The Beqaa Valley continues to Hezbollah’s strategic depth from an operational and logistical points of view. It hosts training facilities, weapons production and storage structures, and sites for strategic systems—missiles and drones—some of which, we estimate, are stored in intact underground installations,” the Israeli center stated.
Amid these recurring Israeli comments about Hezbollah continued smuggling of weapons, the Israeli army announced on October 11 that it had “successfully foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons from Syrian territories into Israel”. The statement added that two persons were detected attempting to bring in pistols. They were arrested and their handguns were confiscated”. The announcement coincided with a statement saying that Israel’s 210th Division and 226th Brigade had conducted “dozens of precise field operations in southern Syria over the past two months.” “The operations resulted in the arrest of several suspects and the seizure of weapons”, the statement added. Last Sunday, the Israeli army said four soldiers had been charged by a military prosecutor for involvement in a large weapons-smuggling ring transporting arms from Syria into Israel. The charges followed a joint investigation by Shin Bet, the police, and the army, revealing a network of 12 suspects—Israeli soldiers, Israeli civilians, and three Syrians. According to Shin Bet, the soldiers crossed the border near the Syrian Druze town of Hader several times to retrieve weapons that were later sold to criminal groups in northern Israel. Although this particular operation was unrelated to Hezbollah or Iran, Israeli analysts told Alhurra that a chaotic and unbridled weapons market now exists inside Syria—and that the new regime in Damascus has yet to fully assert control over its borders and over armed groups and weapons traffickers operating along the frontiers with Lebanon and Israel.
Israeli officials, according to Alhurra’s correspondent, say these operations are part of ongoing efforts to prevent infiltration and smuggling attempts along the border—within a broader strategy of “preemptive defense” aimed at undermining hostile infrastructure and blocking the military entrenchment of Iran-backed factions near Israel’s borders. This, they argue, shows that weapons smuggling from Syria remains a “major security challenge” on that front.
Eyal Zisser, an Israeli professor and historian specialized in Syrian and Lebanese history and head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, believes Syrian President Ahmad al-Shar’a ascend to power poses a major challenge to Hezbollah’s smuggling routes. Since al-Shar’a presents himself as an enemy of Iran and Hezbollah, his government “will work to prevent any cooperation in smuggling, fearing weapons could end up with opponents from the former regime.” As a result, Zisser tells Alhurra, large-scale smuggling has become neither easy nor widespread, though it still occurs at a low level through Hezbollah-affiliated individuals seeking profit on the black market, exploiting the regime’s incomplete control of the country. Zisser also views the arrest of drug and arms trafficker Noah Zaiter by the Lebanese army as “an important step in curbing Hezbollah’s attempts to rebuild its military capabilities.” But he cautions that “Hezbollah, despite the heavy blows, continues to think long-term.” “The group maintains a low profile for now but is slowly preparing for the next confrontation”, which is something that must be considered when assessing countering smuggling efforts”, he adds.
In the final analysis, Israeli reports about continued weapons smuggling to Hezbollah come against a largely new geopolitical reality in the region. Syria’s borders are no longer wide open to Hezbollah and its allies; Israel’s dominance in both air and land has expanded; and Lebanon itself is no longer the open arena it once was for the group’s operations. Therefore, even if the supply lines have not been cut off entirely, their ability to function properly is questionable indeed.
Rami Al Amine
كاتب وصحافي لبناني يعيش في الولايات المتحدة الأميركية. حائز درجة ماجستير في العلاقات الإسلامية والمسيحية من كلية العلوم الدينية في جامعة القديس يوسف في بيروت. صدر له ديوان شعري بعنوان "أنا شاعر كبير" (دار النهضة العربية - 2007)، وكتيب سياسيّ بعنوان "يا علي لم نعد أهل الجنوب" (خطط لبنانية - 2008)، وكتاب عن مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي بعنوان "معشر الفسابكة" (دار الجديد - 2012) وكتاب بعنوان "الباكيتان- سيرة تمثال" (دار النهضة العربية- ٢٠٢٤)
