T+ T – Normal size
Israel’s liquidation of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in a violent bombing on Friday in the southern suburb of Beirut was the result of a remarkable espionage operation that culminated in intelligence work that lasted for several years, and sheds light on the party’s deep penetration, according to experts.
Below is what we know about how Israel mobilized its intelligence resources to carry out this operation:
preparation
Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel on October 8, 2023, in “support” for its Palestinian ally, Hamas, which has been waging a war against Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, following its unprecedented attack on the south of the Hebrew state.
The cross-border bombardment between Israel and Hezbollah escalated over the course of about a year, leading to the detonation of booby-trapped wireless communications devices carried by thousands of Hezbollah members in Lebanon in mid-September, leaving 39 dead and about 3,000 wounded.
Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said in a note that those bombings, for which Israel did not claim responsibility, “returned Hezbollah’s communications to the Stone Age.”
Analysts believe that the attacks reflect the significant progress achieved by Military Unit 8200, which is responsible for signals intelligence and cyber warfare, in penetrating Hezbollah’s communications devices.
In statements in February, Nasrallah warned against cell phones as potential spying devices. This encouraged the party to use wireless communication devices that are not connected to the Internet.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani confirmed to reporters on Friday that the intelligence information that led to Nasrallah’s liquidation was collected over a period of years.
He said, “We used the intelligence we had collected over the years, and we had real-time information, and we carried out this strike.”
In this regard, retired military personnel and researcher at the Israeli International Counterterrorism Institute at the Richman University in Herzliya (central Israel), Miri Eisen, said, “Israel’s capabilities in relation to Hezbollah show the depth of intelligence penetration into Hezbollah’s areas,” stressing that the attack was the result of long work. Long term.
For Middle East affairs specialist James Dorsey, there is no doubt that this operation is the result of “extremely complex” intelligence work.
“It shows not only the great technological capability, but also the depth of Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah,” he said.
The hit
According to Israeli officials, Nasrallah was in a meeting with other Hezbollah leaders on Friday at the party’s “headquarters” in Haret Hreik in the southern Beirut suburb.
An army video clip shows F-15 fighter bombers taking off from Hatzerim Air Base (south) on Friday to carry out the operation. Shortly before 18:30 (15:30 GMT), strong explosions were heard across Beirut.
According to the American Wall Street Journal, Israel spent months planning to use “a series of explosions” to reach the hideout located under the residential buildings where Nasrallah was located, with “each bombing being followed by another.”
The Hezbollah meeting coincided with the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was present.
Netanyahu’s office later published a photo showing him at the moment he approved the strike, a decision he made “at his hotel in New York,” according to the Times of Israel.
According to the American New York Times, analysis of an army video clip indicates that the planes participating in the attack were “equipped with at least 15 bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds” (about 900 kilograms).
Senior officials told the newspaper that “more than 80 bombs were dropped over several minutes to kill” Hassan Nasrallah, while the Wall Street Journal reported that the hideout was hit by “80 tons of bombs.”
Repercussions
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced an initial toll of six dead and 91 wounded.
From the point of view of analyst Heiko Weimin of the International Crisis Group, it is difficult to predict the long-term effects of Nasrallah’s assassination on Hezbollah’s operations.
For now, Israeli officials are pleased with this achievement, while continuing to threaten a ground operation in Lebanon in order to push Hezbollah and its missile arsenal as far as possible from the Israeli-Lebanese border.
On Saturday, the Israeli army published the text of statements by the commander of the squadron that targeted Nasrallah, in which he said: “We will reach everyone, everywhere.”
