With major developments regarding the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Israel has, within this year of 2024, been increasingly attempting to cut down the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organization. Major leaders within the group include Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and a higher-ranking commander known as Fuad Shukr, killed after the succession of target killings.
Experts say that these operations, led by Israel’s military and Mossad, have significantly damaged Hezbollah’s leadership structure and have been a key factor in Israel’s favor since the October 7, 2023, attacks that marked the beginning of the current escalation.
Israeli intelligence penetrated Hezbollah and made such lethal operations possible. For more than two decades, Israel has operated a sprawling espionage campaign against Hezbollah, tapping everything from recruiting informants in Lebanon to planting listening devices to track the group’s every move.
The breadth of that effort allowed Mossad to learn even the most personal details about commanders, such as Shukr, who had four mistresses. According to reports, Shukr consulted Hezbollah’s top cleric to perform proxy wedding ceremonies for them over the phone.
Tragically, Shukr was among those killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on July 30. The word to relocate to the higher floor had just reached him and he ran right into the line of fire. In continuation of the strategic use of communications devices against Hezbollah, the report describes plans to turn pagers into lethal weapons.
Meanwhile, Hassan Nasrallah underestimated Israel’s determination to kill him and stayed in a reinforced bunker in Beirut. On September 27, Israeli jets dropped approximately 80 tonnes of explosives, killing him and marking a turning point in the continuing conflict. These events are part of Israel’s carefully thought-out strategy for redrawing the regional balance of power.
