Iran is smuggling missiles to Hezbollah through Turkey, a senior idf official has said. Citing a source within the Israeli government, research department Brigadier General Yossi Beiditz told EU ambassadors in a briefing last week that Iran continues to ship arms and equipment to terrorists via planes traveling through Turkish airspace or overland in trucks disguised as Turkish cargo carriers. From Turkey, the missiles travel through Syria before being delivered to Hezbollah compounds in Lebanon.

One clear example of this smuggling operation occurred in May 2007 when Turkish officials confiscated a train shipment of Iranian weapons, including 300 rockets, registered as cleaning materials.

Ten months later, the main difference is that the weaponry Iran is now sending to Hezbollah is far more threatening and deadly for Israel’s citizens.

According to Beiditz’s source, Iran has now delivered Hezbollah missiles with a 185-mile range, giving the terrorist organization the capability to strike strategic targets in southern Israel, such as Dimona, where an Israeli nuclear reactor is located. These long-range missiles also give Hezbollah the capability to shoot from safer distances further away from the Israeli border.

But these missiles boast more than just a longer range. They are also more accurate and can carry a heavier, deadlier payload.

Hezbollah learned how to effectively wage a missile campaign against Israel in the Second Lebanon War. Since the end of the war, the Iranian proxy terrorist group has replenished its arsenal and then some, dramatically increasing its numbers of rockets and missiles.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented the Security Council with Israeli information showing Hezbollah to possess 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets.

Iran has taken advantage of the cease-fire and an impotent UN peacekeeping force brought in after the Second Lebanon War by rearming Hezbollah to the teeth. And despite UN Resolution 1701, which orders Hezbollah to disarm, the terrorist group is more than prepared for the next fight.

According to an interview published Wednesday with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar daily, the deputy chief of Hezbollah, Naim Kassem, said the group is ready for another war with Israel, and the “Israelis know they have to pay a high price in any war.”

So the question is, is Israel ready for another war with Hezbollah? Can Israel defend itself against an improved missile campaign? For more information on the dangers Israel faces from missiles, read “Israel’s Missile Defense Strategy.”