File photo: A Hezbollah militant looks through his binoculars in Umm Khorj in the Lebanese eastern mountain range close to the Syrian border on October 9, 2014. AFP
The mobilization raises the potential for the emergence of a third front in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
Omar Abu Layla, the executive director of Deir e-Zour 24, reported to the New Arab that both Hezbollah and other Iran-backed militias are recruiting fighters from the eastern Syrian province of Deir e-Zour for deployment in Quneitra province in the Golan Heights.
Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, have been building up military infrastructure in Quneitra in recent years.
Abu Layla disclosed that "batches of Iraqi fighters have also arrived," have been arriving in western Syria over the past week. Three other independent sources also confirmed to the New Arab that Hezbollah fighters have been reinforcing Quneitra since Monday.
Nour Abo Hasan, a journalist and researcher specializing in southern Syria and Quneitra, explained to the New Arab, "a lot of Hezbollah forces are present in Quneitra, as well as the western countryside of Daraa [a southern Syrian province] by the Israeli border fence. If they enter the [Israeli-occupied] Golan, the geography and infrastructure there is helpful to them."
Tensions have already escalated along the southern Lebanese border, with Hezbollah and Israel engaging in rocket exchanges since Sunday. So far, both sides have managed to prevent the conflict from evolving into a full-scale regional war.
Abo Hasan suggested that "Hezbollah wants to keep the destruction away from Lebanon. Quneitra is not a heavily populated area...if Israel launches rockets at the area, the villages are tiny, isolated and spread out."
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