Yaakov Lappin a military and strategic affairs correspondent in "The Algemeiner", a global news website which covers the Middle East, Israel and matters of Jewish interest around the world qouted , Israeli military sources on Friday that the Lebanese official Armed Forces (LAF) Provides Operational Cover to Hezbollah’s activities in southern Lebanon.

“We actually see them working together,” an Israeli official claimed earlier this month, during a briefing to reporters near the Lebanese border. “We see them go the same villages together. We know who is who. Sometimes Hezbollah personnel wear LAF uniforms. The LAF, of course, are allowed to be here.”

The cooperation also takes the form of joint vehicle patrols, and the LAF never enters a southern Lebanese village without gaining prior Hezbollah approval, said the source.

This relationship helps Hezbollah get around UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which forbids it from moving armed units into south Lebanon.

With the Syrian war beginning to wind down, Hezbollah, armed with a formidable rocket and missile arsenal, is preparing to bring its highly trained units in Syria back home to Lebanon.

Many will head to the southern Lebanese front with Israel, according to Israeli military assessments.

The close cooperation with the LAF could allow the Hezbollah to deploy its forces even more effectively, as they prepare for potential war with Israel.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a former Israeli Military Intelligence research division chief, and a former director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

"We see it in ongoing cooperation in intelligence, operational, and security activities in all fields. This is an area of concern,” he said, stressing that should worry everyone, because no one wants to see Hezbollah get more capabilities than it already has.”

Kuperwasser noted that, despite their growing cooperation, Hezbollah and the LAF do not view everything eye to eye. The LAF has a commitment to the Lebanese state.

Due to such trends, Israel has repeatedly warned that it can no longer make a clear distinction between Hezbollah and the Lebanese state or the LAF. Should any potential security escalation occur, the Israeli source stated during the briefing earlier this month, the IDF’s response would “mostly depend on how the LAF behaves.”

“If we see the LAF move back and give us space, we will not attack them. If they take part in hostilities, we will have to attack,” the source cautioned.

Hezbollah’s cooperation with the LAF is just one aspect of its larger Lebanese military operations, which are made up of three main components.

The first involves defensive units, embedded in every southern Lebanese village and in open areas. These units are tasked with challenging a potential Israeli ground offensive, and have access to underground bunkers and tunnels. The units maintain war readiness, equipment, and weapons.

A second component is Hezbollah’s offensive firepower, which is estimated to exceed 120,000 missiles, making it one of the largest collections in the world. This arsenal places almost every area in Israel within range. Hezbollah is expected to focus its heaviest firepower on northern Israeli border regions and Israeli military targets, but it can fire thousands of rockets at greater Tel Aviv and beyond, potentially paralyzing the Israeli home front.

Its third component is an elite ground attack force, called “Radwan,” which would seek to use newly gained battle experience from Syria and cross the border into Israel, where — according to Israeli Army assessments — their mission would be “to kill as much as they can in villages and bases, and symbolically attack Israel, so that after the war, Hezbollah can claim: ‘We won.'”