U.K. paper: Hezbollah buying land to attack Israel - Haaretz

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Mon., August 13, 2007 Av 29, 5767

Israel Time: 02:10 (EST+7)

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U.K. paper: Hezbollah buying land to attack Israel

By Yoav Stern

Hezbollah is purchasing large plots of land from Christians and Druze in southern Lebanon to improve its military capabilities in preparation for another war with Israel, the British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.

The paper said that Hezbollah was buying land north of the Litani River, where its operatives are undisturbed by the Lebanese Army or United Nations forces.

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"Christians and Druze are selling land and moving out, while the Shia are moving in," Edmund Rizk, a Christian lawmaker for the area until 1992, told the Telegraph. "There is an extraordinary demographic shift taking place."

Israeli military sources said that Hezbollah has replenished its weapons arsenal in the year since the Second Lebanon War and has even improved it in several ways. The organization is now more active within southern Lebanese towns, which sometimes causes conflict between Hezbollah and local residents.

According to the Telegraph, the land buyout is said to be the work of Ali Tajeddine, a wealthy Shi'ite businessman who made his fortune trading diamonds in Sierra Leone before returning to Lebanon and starting a successful construction company. The paper said that Tajeddine, who denies any connection with Hezbollah, "is believed to be a major player" in a large reconstruction program run by the militant group.

Hezbollah has closed off the area around the village of Chbail, which is north of the Litani but close enough to Israel to be a launching pad for Katyushas, the paper said. A sign reading "Entry forbidden. Hezbollah area" was hung near the village, and the closure is enforced by a pair of gunmen with AK-47s.

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