Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah Killed
The Israeli military says they got their man after years of intelligence collection.
AP (“Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut strike, Israel’s military says“):
Israel said Saturday that it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, dealing its most significant blow to the Lebanese militant group after months of fighting. There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.
If the claim is true, Nasrallah is by far the most powerful target to be killed by Israel in weeks of intensified fighting with Hezbollah. The military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leadership met at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the elimination of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating that more strikes were planned. He said that the strike targeting Hezbollah leadership was the result of a long period of preparation.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes Friday, which leveled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and additional Hezbollah commanders, were also killed in the attack, the Israeli military said.
The Israeli military said it was mobilizing additional reserve soldiers as tensions escalate with Lebanon, activating three battalions of reserve soldiers to serve across the country. The call comes after it sent two brigades to northern Israel earlier in the week to train for a possible ground invasion.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the airstrike was based on years of tracking Nasrallah along with “real time intelligence” that made it viable. He said Nasrallah’s death had been confirmed through various types of intelligence, but declined to elaborate.
Shoshani said that Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah’s capabilities over the past week by targeting a combination of immediate threats and strategic weapons, such as larger, guided missiles. But he said much of Hezbollah’s arsenal still remains intact and that Israel would continue to target the group.
“This isn’t a threat that has gone away,” he said.
Shoshani said it is “safe to assume” that Hezbollah will retaliate and that Israel is on “high readiness.”
But he said Israel hopes the blow to Hezbollah will change the course of the war.
“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” he said. “We have been looking for solutions, looking for a change in reality that will bring our civilians home,” referring to the approximately 60,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from their homes along the Lebanese border for almost a year. Earlier this month, Israel’s government said halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is an official war goal.
We’ve learned over the decades since the 9/11 attacks that killing senior leaders doesn’t necessarily destroy a terrorist organization. Indeed, Hassan was elevated to this post in 1992 after his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, met a similar fate.
Still, there’s a psychological effect on the enemy and a morale boost for the home team. Hezbollah has done a lot of evil over the last four decades and bringing justice to those who planned those atrocities is satisfying, if not strategically decisive.
Like remember the time they blew up six apartment buildings to get one guy? I’m glad they’ve finally been held to account for such a barbaric attack.
@Stormy Dragon:
I’m not sure how to reconcile the “level six apartment buildings” and “six people were killed,” with at least four of those being “Hezbollah commanders.” These clearly aren’t high-rise apartments. This seems incredibly surgical if that’s right.
It amuses me when people opine on how they’ll just replace the guy at the head of a wealthy, murderous organization. Yeah, that’s how militaries and mafias work. They plan for the loss of leaders. And for a terrorist organization, someone is always willing to seize the “assets” and live a life of luxury.
On the other hand, that’s 32 years of alliances, coalitions, and minion building gone. And Israel has taken out what looks like the 2nd and 3rd tiers. That can mean internecine fighting which the Mossad can exploit, the IDF track and the killing of a lot of “good” fighters by their fellow “soldiers”.
If that keeps Hezbollah shooting wild or shooting inside Lebanon, then that’s good.
And if it is true that killing a leader has little impact, why do academics all fantasize about the impact of killing Hitler? The German college graduates had been inculcated with the ideas and values that came to be known as Nazism for more than 70 years. Long before Hitler was born, much less rose to power. Sure, it was only after the Germans saw and adopted the practices of the Soviets that the true horror was made raw, but the beliefs were there in the college educated Germans.
@JKB: I don’t think the Hitler analogy works here. Nasrallah took over an already-formed organization.
Just because you can do something militarily doesn’t mean you should.
He deserved to die so good riddance. Long term killing these leaders hasn’t made much difference, but if Israel is really going tp invade Lebanon it might be a benefit in the short term. Given the poor performance of the IDF in some of their prior ground attacks in Lebanon may be a big benefit.
Steve
@JKB: @James Joyner:
So like Trump then?
But is the GOP a terrorist organization? Let’s ask the people in Springfield OH.
Bear in mind Hitler got his start as supposedly a mole working for the German Army reporting back on the Nazis – except he decided to switch sides and take over the Nazis.
Israel’s problem is that they aren’t fighting evil in a war of spectacle. They have 60,000 people who have been forced out of their homes because of Hezbollah missile launches. Personally, it would require more than a few assassinations of a militia’s leaders to get me back into that house. Hezbollah has a budget of 700 million. They can keep on firing these missiles regardless of who is at the top.
@James Joyner:
The article helpfully left out the rest of the Health Ministry’s statement that this was only the people they know of so far because they’re not sure how many people are buried under the rubble of the apartment blocks.
He was a bad man. It’s a good thing that he’s dead.
The best outcome here would be if the murdering side of Hezbollah stepped back and the governing side of Hezbollah took precedence. Urban ground warfare is not easy, and Israeli soldiers will die, as well as Hezbollah soldiers and civilians. Hezbollah needs to decide if they want an Israeli ground invasion, or not.
@James Joyner:
I mean, it would take a full 30 seconds on Google to find pictures demonstrating they were at least mid-rise apartments (not sure where the precise cutoff in the Lebanese building code is)
@Stormy Dragon: That makes more sense.