IDF strikes wreck Hezbollah command structure and firepower

The IDF has confirmed that alongside Nasrallah, numerous other senior Hezbollah leaders have been killed, further dismantling the group’s ability to function effectively.

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

The unprecedented series of blows delivered by the Israel Defense Forces to Hezbollah’s leadership and arsenal has severely harmed the Iranian-backed terror army’s ability to attack.

Recent airstrikes have not only taken out almost the whole of Hezbollah’s command structure but have also strategically crippled its ability to fire rockets and missiles, reducing its planned mass barrages to much smaller attacks.

During a briefing to reporters on Saturday, IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani confirmed that the Israeli Air Force’s strike on Hezbollah’s terrorist headquarters in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut on Friday eliminated Hassan Nasrallah.

The development marks an enormous strategic achievement for Israel. Under Nasrallah’s leadership since 1992, Hezbollah transformed into a formidable force, going from terror organization to terror army, and carrying out attacks across Israel and the world.

“Nasrallah was one of the world’s strongest and most influential terrorists … and he was a real threat with the blood of thousands of people on his hands,” said Shoshani.

“Under his leadership, Lebanon became an armed base with advanced precision weapons of various ranges aimed at Israel and in the entire region.”

The underground Hezbollah headquarters complex in Beirut, where Nasrallah and other top commanders operated, has been destroyed. This command center, located beneath residential buildings, was a key site for Hezbollah’s activities.

The IDF has confirmed that alongside Nasrallah, numerous other senior Hezbollah leaders have been killed, further dismantling the group’s ability to function effectively.

When Israel’s airstrikes in recent weeks are taken together, the toll on Hezbollah’s command structure appears to be catastrophic for the terror organization.

Israeli strikes have eliminated the following commanders:

Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front and second-in-command overall; Ibrahim Qubaisi, head of its Missiles and Rockets Force; Ibrahim Aqil, commander of the elite Radwan Force; Wissam al-Tawil, former commander of the Radwan Force; Abu Hassan Samir, head of the Radwan Force’s Training Unit and former commander of the Radwan Force; and Fuad Shukr, who was the highest-ranking “military” commander in Hezbollah.

Additional terrorists killed include Muhammad Hussein Srour, commander of Hezbollah’s Aerial Command; Sami Taleb Abdullah, commander of the Nasser unit in Southern Lebanon; and Mohammed Nasser, commander of the Aziz territorial unit in Southern Lebanon.

These commanders were pivotal to Hezbollah, and their elimination has resulted in chaos within the group’s command structure.

“Most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated. We believe that has a part of preventing wider attacks,” said Shoshani.

The fate of Hashim Safi al-Din, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council and potentially Nasrallah’s successor, is unknown at this time.

Since joining the war in support of Hamas a day after the Oct. 7 massacre, Hezbollah has fired over 9,500 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel. At the same time, the number of projectiles Hezbollah is currently firing at Israel falls far short of what it had planned, according to Israeli assessments.

Hezbollah has been limited to launching hundreds of projectiles per day instead of thousands.

“The threat of rockets and missiles, as I said, is not done yet,” said Shoshani. “They still have tens of thousands of rockets, different kinds that we are working to prevent them from shooting towards Israelis.

“This could have been thousands of rockets a day, and we’ve been able to prevent this huge attack to just be a very large attack. And I think our actions were somewhat successful in that sense,” he added.

One of Hezbollah’s key threats, long-range and precision-guided missiles, has also been substantially weakened. The IDF has targeted Hezbollah’s missile storage and launch sites hidden in civilian areas throughout Southern Lebanon and Beirut.

“We have exposed this just in the last few days, with Hezbollah’s cruise missiles, long range rockets and explosive UAVs embedded in civilian homes across Lebanon,” said Shoshani.

He noted that the IAF had devastated Hezbollah’s Iranian-supplied Khader anti-ship cruise missiles, which he described as “accurate” and “dangerous.” They could have been activated against Israel “within minutes,” added Shoshani, “and we were able to remove the threat.”

The destruction of these missiles, along with other strategic threats, has so far prevented Hezbollah from carrying out its publicly stated goal of striking Israel’s critical infrastructure.

“Nasrallah promised that they would strike our strategic assets like our gas rigs, our ships, our ports, other points on land. Really, a dangerous development,” said Shoshani.

The latest strikes join the Mossad-attributed Sept. 17-18 pager and walkie talkie explosive attacks that injured thousands of Hezbollah operatives, including a large number of field commanders, and the waves of IAF attacks from Sept. 23-25 targeting over 2,000 Hezbollah rockets launch sites.

“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions. Hezbollah has started this war on Oct. 8. They have been firing at us ever since. And we have been looking for solutions, looking for change in reality, that will bring our civilians home [to northern Israel],” said Shoshani.

“And no matter what happened, Hezbollah would not back off and would not stop with its aggressions and kept planning a terror attack,” he continued.

“So, what we’re focusing on is removing those threats of terror attacks, striking those missiles, heavy missiles, cruise missiles, persistent guided missiles that could be launched within minutes at our strategic points.”

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