The Israeli army killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, this Friday, September 27, in a strike in Beirut. This military success was made possible thanks to extensive intelligence work.
A complex operation. Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike near Beirut on Friday, September 27, dealing a devastating blow to the Lebanese armed movement supported by Iran. Such an offensive is the conclusion of extensive work carried out by the Israeli intelligence services.
On Friday, the Israeli army sent several Israeli fighter planes equipped with bunker-busting bombs towards Lebanon to strike the headquarters of Hezbollah. After several hours of uncertainty, the Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had “eliminated” Hassan Nasrallah. Initially silent, Hezbollah confirmed the death of its leader the next day.
Cyberwar, electromagnetics and imaging…
According to an Israeli military statement, Ali Karaké, presented as the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as other executives, were killed in this same operation. Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, was also shot dead, according to the Iranian agency Irna. Hezbollah is simply talking about four deaths this Monday.
To carry out such an operation, while Hassan Nasrallah rarely appeared in public and was very discreet about his movements, the Mossad carried out significant preparation. “We used the intelligence we had collected for years, we had real-time information and we carried out this strike,” Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani assured reporters on Friday. Israeli.
Statements that experts do not question. Former US Army Colonel Cedric Leighton told CNN that the operation required “significant preparation”.
“(The Mossad) not only had to follow Nasrallah’s movements, but also determine his lifestyle” before striking, explains the ex-colonel. For this, the Israeli intelligence services relied on different types of sources, “of electromagnetic origin, humans and imaging,” he explains.
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The Israeli army’s renowned military unit 8,200, in charge of electromagnetic intelligence and cyberwarfare, has proven particularly valuable, according to Raphaël Jerusalmy.
A probable infiltration of Hezbollah
For Miri Eisen, a retired colonel and researcher at the Israeli International Institute for Combating Terrorism at Reichman University in Israel, one of the Mossad’s successes is to have succeeded in “infiltrating the spheres of of Hezbollah.
Former officer Raphaël Jerusalmy believes in particular that the Mossad must have benefited from “visual confirmation” that Hassan Nasrallah had indeed entered Hezbollah HQ last Friday. This confirmation “must come from someone who is physically on site and sees the target entering the building that must be targeted” so that the Israeli army is sure not to miss its target.
“This visual confirmation comes, in general, from local, not to say internal, complicity in Hezbollah, double agent or not,” he says. In any case, it signals “the depth with which Israel has penetrated Hezbollah,” notes Middle East specialist James Dorsey.
Matthew Savill, military analyst for the British Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), agrees. The elimination of Hassan Nasrallah is the result of several “years of establishing a complete plan” of the Hezbollah intelligence organization which necessarily had “human sources” to “keep it up to date”, he maintains to Reuters .
Hezbollah communications cut
According to several experts, the simultaneous explosion of pagers and then Hezbollah walkie-talkies, which occurred in mid-September and attributed to Israel, is also part of this work carried out upstream.
These explosions “brought Hezbollah communications back to the Stone Age,” writes historian specializing in the Arab world Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in a note.
Raphaël Jerusalmy, former military intelligence officer in the Israeli army, told BFMTV that this operation to destroy the communication devices used by Hezbollah, coupled with “the emission of signals and disinformation according to which Israel was on the verge to return by land to southern Lebanon and attack Beirut” put Hezbollah up against the wall.
“This forced the senior leaders of Hezbollah to an emergency meeting and, no longer having the means of communication that they had in the past, they were obliged to meet physically,” explains Raphaël Jerusalmy. Hassan Nasrallah thus found himself forced to go to the headquarters of Hezbollah, on which the Israeli army was able to launch its strikes on Friday.
Sophisticated technology
In addition, the Israeli operation relied on particularly sophisticated “technological means” to carry out its operation. It struck Hezbollah HQ with F-151 fighters, powerful fighter planes capable of destroying bunkers.
According to the New York Times, analysis of an army video indicates that the planes involved in the attack were “equipped with at least 15 bombs of 2,000 pounds” (around 900 kg) each. This showed eight planes equipped with at least 15 2,000-pound bombs, including the American-made BLU-109. These bombs, known as “bunker-busters”, can penetrate deep underground before exploding.
Rusi aviation expert Justin Bronk told the Guardian that around 100 munitions were used and bombs were dropped “every two seconds”, completely destroying three buildings.
For the military analyst at Rusi, Matthew Savill, this operation allows us to see in a new light “the failure to identify and prevent the Hamas operation” by Israel on October 7, 2023. “This gives credibility to the theory according to which (Mossad) focused on Lebanon and Iran at the expense of Gaza,” he believes.
Juliette Desmonceaux with AFP
