According to local reports, on November 20, targets of the Shia axis were attacked in the city of Palmyra. Palmyra is one of the cities that are a geographical anchor of the Iranian ground weapons corridor that enters from Iraq to Syria and passes through the geographical strip of Al-Bukamal – Deir ez-Zor. Palmyra is a transit station towards Damascus or towards Homs.
From a security perspective, the shortest but most problematic road is via the oil terminals: Exiting Albukamal, advancing north on Route 4 till reaching the desert oil terminals road. On the oil terminal road, bearing west for about 70 km to the T-2 oil terminal and from there northwest down the desert road about 150 km, passing the T-3 oil station to the M20 route junction near Arak. It is a deserted desert route with no military presence and almost no activity. ISIS squads operate in this desert part of Syria. Convoys on this route are prone to harm from sabotaging the road infrastructures (with an emphasis on local bridges running over ravines), planting IEDs against vehicles, and even anti-tank attacks and ambushes. The route allows faster movement towards Damascus but is submitted to security problems.
The second, safer route is from the direction of the Al-Bukamal border crossing to Deir ezZor and from there west to Arak and Palmyra. Along this road, there are many Shiite militia security posts. This is a better-quality route and has a better security situation despite the lengthening of the travel time. As part of the work to rehabilitate and improve the Syrian road network, the Deir ez-Zor-Al-Bukamal road (90 km) was completed.
From Palmyra heading west on road number 32 and then road number 3 to the city of Homs. From Homs heading southwest on road 4 towards Al Qusayr / Hawsh Al-Sayed Ali.
19 targets in 9 areas in northeastern Lebanon were attacked during the months of October-November 2024 to disrupt the transfer of weapons on land from Syria (Al Qusayr area) to northeastern Lebanon.
The geographical area west of the Syrian town of Al Qusayr (southwest of Homs) towards Hawsh Al-Sayed Ali and towards the Lebanese town of Qasr has been used by Hezbollah as a central hub for arms smuggling for several years, especially since the beginning of the war in October 2023.
Hezbollah’s armaments unit is responsible for the storage of weapons and established a logistics storage infrastructure in Al Qusayr which was integrated into the weapons transfer infrastructure of Unit 4400 through the above geographical area. Over the past few months, several targets belonging to this storage infrastructure in Al Qusayr have also been attacked.
In order to cut off Hezbollah’s oxygen, formal and informal border crossings on bridges crossing the Orontes River, road infrastructure and even a large smuggling tunnel were attacked.
One of the biggest challenges that Israel will face the day after the war is thwarting Hezbollah’s attempts to rebuild and strengthen, which, among other things, will be reflected in Hezbollah’s attempts to transfer weapons to Lebanon by land, air, and sea. We are not sure, to say the least, that any other party, except for Israel, will carry out effective supervision and prevention in this context.
