The Alma Center’s Research Department initiated a project to find the locations of missile launching sites in South Lebanon adjacent to the civilian population, as part of what is known as the “Human Shield tactic”.
In their report, Alma notes that, despite the fact that a large proportion of Hezbollah’s missiles are located in south Lebanon, the information in public sources on the subject is scarce.
The primary source of Alma‘s project was the Wikimapia.org website.
“The first locations we found were all close to civilian infrastructure”, the report states, “which drove us to further the research on the subject and thus find 28 missile launching locations and the sites connected with these locations”.
According to the report, the missiles are medium-range missiles – “The same as those subject to the Hezbollah missile precision guided missile project (PGM’s)”.
The report explains that “as part of its modus operandi, Hezbollah stores its weapons in civilian structures and in the proximity of densely populated areas throughout Lebanon, with highest concentration in the capital city of Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon”.
