The terrorist group Hezbollah has confirmed that their long-time spiritual and political leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a massive explosion in a quiet suburb south of Beirut.
Nasrallah was meeting with most of his senior commanders when the Israeli air strike leveled six apartment buildings, taking out Nasrallah and several of his top military leaders.
There was an unconfirmed report that several leaders of Iran's Quds Force were also killed in the blast. Iran has neither confirmed nor denied the report.
It's impossible to overstate the impact Nasrallah's exit from the stage has on Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and the region. Hezbollah seems a monolithic organization. Instead, it's riven by factions as its political arm is constantly at odds with its military wing. Nasrallah took this quarreling organization and united it, molding it into a hybrid terrorist/political power in Lebanon and beyond.
Perhaps even bigger than the blow to Hezbollah was the serious erosion of Iran's influence in Lebanon and the weakening of its vaunted "resistance" to the state of Israel.
The strike that killed Nasrallah was years in the making. Mossad, Israel's intelligence organization, had learned how to track the terrorist chief's movements and got the opportunity to bring its plans to fruition when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly.
Lulling Nasrallah and Hezbollah into a false sense of security, Israel used "bunker-busting" bombs to get at Hezbollah's headquarters under an apartment building. The blasts left a crater 65 feet deep.
Israel isn't done softening up Hezbollah for what's expected to be a ground assault to push the terrorists back from Israel's northern border.
On Saturday, Israel’s military said jet fighters had also attacked “dozens” of Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and various areas of southern Lebanon and the attacks are continuing.
Israeli forces said they had targeted buildings where weapons were believed to be stored as well as sites from where rockets were launched into Israel.
Israel launched an assault on the southern suburbs of Beirut in a series of attacks on Friday in the heaviest bombardment since it escalated its offensive against Lebanon earlier this month. Attacks on Beirut and areas around Lebanon continued through the night into Saturday.
“This attack was massive,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr. “I have covered a lot of aftermaths of Israeli air strikes in these southern suburbs of Beirut but nothing like this.”
Over the last six days, Israel has decimated Hezbollah leadership.
If Nasrallah is now dead, Israel just wiped out the entire senior chain of command of Hezbollah in less than one week with minimal civilian casualties. pic.twitter.com/EJvGs4jMl2
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇨🇾🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) September 27, 2024
Nasrallah was also an unofficial leader of Iran's proxies in the region, often hosting meetings with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Houthi rebels.
Hezbollah is in disarray, having suffered numerous losses to its top leadership in recent days. On September 20, its Radwan force commanders were killed. This represented the loss of sixteen critical leaders in the terrorist group. In subsequent days it also lost the head of its drone unit. The loss of Hassan Nasrallah basically cuts the head off the whole organization. It is unclear if the Lebanese-based terrorist organization had prepared for this scenario.
Hezbollah still has a vast quantity of weapons, including rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles, and precision-guided munitions. However, it will be in chaos and disarray without a clear chain of command or leadership. The group has struggled to respond to Israel’s attacks since the exploding pagers on September 17. It has seen itself suffer one unprecedented blow after another; this keeps the terrorist group off balance.
Hezbollah is still a dangerous force, armed with thousands of ballistic missiles capable of hitting anywhere in Israel. Their best regiments are experienced fighters who gave Israel all they could handle in the 2006 war.
Even with Hezbollah's leadership seriously damaged, Israel's ground operation will be no walkover. The terrorists are going to declare victory no matter what happens, but Israel has the opportunity to degrade Hezbollah's capabilities and push them back beyond the Litani River line, ensuring the relative safety of citizens in Northern Israel.
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