Hezb'allah appears to be preparing for war with Israel. The terrorist group has placed 15,000 rockets - capable of hitting every city in Israel - in their southern stronghold, says Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren.

Jerusalem Post:

Hizbullah has an arsenal of approximately 15,000 rockets amassed on Lebanon's border with Israel, including some with a long enough range to hit the southern city of Eilat, Israeli envoy to the US Michael Oren told AFP on Friday.

"The Syrian-Iranian backed Hizbullah poses a very serious threat to Israel...Hizbullah today now has four times as many rockets as it had during the 2006 Lebanon war. These rockets are longer-range. Every city in Israel is within range right now, including Eilat," he said.

Oren expressed Israeli concerns with Hizbullah's concealment of the weapons as well.

"In 2006, many of their missiles were basically out in the open, in silos and the Israeli air force was able to neutralize a great number of them...Today those same missiles have been placed under hospitals, and homes and schools because Hizbullah knows full well if we try to defend ourselves against them, we will be branded once again as war criminals."

Meanwhile, Israel may not be taking this development lying down. A house in southern Lebanon suspected to be an arms warehouse blew up yesterday:

A series of explosions yesterday ripped through a house rumoured to be serving as an arms depot in south Lebanon, an area considered a Hezbollah stronghold, state media reported.

The state-run National News Agency said the blasts were in a three-storey building that was being used as an arms warehouse on the outskirts of the town of Shehabiyeh, just south of the Litani River, an area under surveillance of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).

But the agency later withdrew its report, saying only that a series of explosions had been heard in the area. 

Both the Hez and the Lebanese army are playing down the incident, which could mean they don't want to be caught with their pants down in front of the UN "peacekeeping" force UNIFIL, or that Israeli commandos payed a visit and left a calling card.

Either way, things are starting to heat up on the Lebanese border.

Hat Tip: Clarice Feldman