The New York Times reported on Monday that Hezbollah’s warfighting in Syria is bolstering the organization’s capabilities, despite whatever losses it may be suffering, and that Israeli military officials now assess that the Iran-backed terror group’s involvement in the nearly three-year-old conflict has become “a major burden… but also a major advantage.”

On the one hand, Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite organization that fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006, is preoccupied with shoring up the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in its struggle against rebel forces, and is suffering losses.

But Hezbollah is also acquiring battlefield experience, and the only way for Mr. Assad, a longtime Hezbollah ally, to repay the group is by supplying it with sophisticated weapons, according to Israeli military officials and experts — strengths that could eventually be used against Israel.

“A Hezbollah with modern surface-to-air systems, with modern U.A.V.’s, with modern cybercapabilities, well, this is a different Hezbollah,” the senior military official said, one that could have “much more appetite to taste another conflict with Israel.”

Though opposition elements have been able to degrade Hezbollah’s forces – news published earlier this week conveyed casualty figures as high as 120 fighters – there are roughly five thousand soldiers from the group who are gaining invaluable battlefield experience and emerging battle-hardened.

The dynamic is one of several behind deepening concerns that Hezbollah has set up the next conflagration with Israel to be particularly intense. Analysts have also called specific attention to the vast network of human shields that Hezbollah has created, to the sheer quantity of its stockpiles – thought to contain roughly 100,000 rockets and missiles – and to advanced weapons that are expected to be used against Israeli civilian centers and energy infrastructure.

[Photo: FreedomHouse / Flickr]