Israel talks of missile  attacks in 2017 by surrounding countries Israel fears Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, Israeli senior defense official warned, Wednesday evening, according to Israeli Radio. Syria is believed to have one of the most extensive chemical weapons arsenals in the world, reportedly including sarin, VX and mustard gas; Israel worries where Syria’s chemical weapons will move, whether to the opposition, to Hezbollah or any other militant groups, he said.
According to the Israeli army’s estimates, Iran will be able to complete its nuclear weapons within the next five years, and within the next year Iran will produce nuclear warheads for combat, he added.
He went on to say; the major “challenge” that faces Israeli army is the anti-tank missiles, that Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups acquire these missiles.
According to the same source, the Israeli army can expect in 2017 to come under fire from around 15,000 rockets and missiles in a future conflict with Hezbollah and Syria.
Based on these predictions, and Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran’s growing missile arsenals, a war in 2017 would likely include the firing of 15,000 rockets and missiles into Israeli cities, he explained.
“The arsenals that surround us are increasing in their quantity, quality as well as in their accuracy,” he said, adding, for example by 2017 the Israel believes that Syria, Hezbollah and Iran will have close to 1,000 rockets with accuracy of a few dozen meters.
In addition, Israeli Military Intelligence stated that Israeli intelligence gathered about Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza indicated that the two groups managed to upgrade their military capabilities, and obtained advanced rockets.
Speaking to Israel’s TV Channel 10, a senior Israeli Military Intelligence official said that the missiles that Islamic Jihad managed to obtain are more advanced than the missiles that Hamas has, as they can hit areas that are as far as 74 kilometers, which means that they can hit Tel Aviv and areas beyond.
He added that Israeli military intelligence believes that, in recent months, the Islamic Jihad managed to smuggle different types of weapons through the tunnels, and that some of these weapons are even stronger and more effective than the weapons Hamas managed to obtain.
Islamic Jihad also managed to developed stronger relations with Iran, an issue that enabled Iranian weapons to be sent to it in Gaza, he continued.
Furthermore, the official said that Islamic Jihad fighters succeeded in establishing training centers not only in Gaza, but also in other countries.
Israel believes that Islamic Jihad owns long-range missiles that can hit different targets in Israeli areas that are not close to the border with Gaza, and that the movement is behind attacks carried out on the border between Egypt and Israel, he added.
Moreover, he said, Israeli army warned that the rising power of the Islamic Jihad ‘jeopardizes the security situation in the south”, adding that “should Hamas become unable to fully control the activities of the Islamic Jihad, the Israeli army will have to conduct another war on Gaza, similar to the three-week war that started on December 28, 2008.