Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike targeting an underground bunker in Beirut. The meticulously planned attack, carried out by the Israeli Air Force, involved the collaboration of multiple intelligence agencies and resulted in the death of several senior Hezbollah officials alongside Nasrallah. 

The strike took place in southern Beirut and targeted a heavily fortified bunker located over 60 feet underground. Nasrallah and other high-ranking members of the Iran-backed group had gathered to discuss strategies against Israel, amidst mounting pressure from Tehran to avoid immediate retaliatory actions, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. 

In what is being described as one of the largest strikes on an urban centre in recent history, the Israeli military used nearly 80 tons of explosives, including approximately 85 specialised “bunker-buster” bombs designed to penetrate deep into fortified structures. These munitions, capable of piercing through up to 30 metres of earth or six metres of reinforced concrete, were used to breach the bunker’s defences and ensure the precision of the strike.

“Everything we planned was executed precisely, with no errors, both in intelligence, the planning, with the planes and the operation itself. Everything went smooth,” the commander of the IAF’s 69th Squadron told reporters, as per the Times of Israel. 

The bunker-buster bombs weigh between 907 kg and 1,814 kg. The design of bombs traces back to advanced artillery developed during World War II, specifically the Rochling shells.

Israel’s military campaign had intensified, with over 2,000 airstrikes in Lebanon leading up to the attack. The attack also targeted Hezbollah’s military assets, destroying crucial electronic equipment and a cache of missiles. Israeli military officials indicated that months of planning had gone into the operation, with real-time intelligence confirming Nasrallah’s presence in the bunker at the time of the strike. Israeli spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told the WSJ, “We had intelligence that Nasrallah was meeting with senior terrorists, and we acted accordingly.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised the strike while addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York. During his speech, Netanyahu condemned terrorism and stressed Israel’s commitment to securing its borders. In his first public remarks following the attack, Netanyahu referred to Nasrallah as “the terrorist,” saying, “His removal is essential to achieving our goals.”

The conflict has already displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. The United Nations reported that over 2,00,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced in the last week alone, with many more expected to flee as the fighting intensifies. 

Israel has vowed to continue its military operations against Hezbollah until the group ceases its attacks. 

New Delhi:

Hours before Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon’s Beirut, an Iranian mole informed Israeli authorities of his location, French newspaper Le Parisien has reported.

Citing a security source in Lebanon, the report said the mole had informed Israeli authorities that Nasrallah would be at Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs to attend a meeting with several top members of the organisation.

Around 1.30 pm IST yesterday (11 am Lebanon time), Israel Defence Forces said in a post on X, “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.” Later in the day, Hezbollah confirmed the news. “Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah… has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,” it said in a statement.

How Israel Boosted Spies In Fight Against Hezbollah

According to a report in The New York Times, Israel’s recent successes against Hezbollah are a direct result of the country’s decision to devote far more intelligence resources to target Hezbollah after the 2006 war with the Iran-backed group. The Israeli army and the intelligence agencies, the report said, failed to score a decisive victory in that 34-day conflict. The war ended with a UN-brokered cease-fire and allowed Hezbollah, despite losses, to regroup and prepare for the next war.

In the years that followed, Israel deployed a lot of resources to collect information about Hezbollah’s leadership and strategy. Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, built cutting-edge cyber tools to better intercept Hezbollah’s cellphones and other communications, the NYT report said. New teams were created within combat ranks to ensure that valuable information was quickly passed on to soldiers and the air force, it added.

The Pager Bombs And Nasrallah’s Admission

In a recent televised speech, Nasrallah had said Hezbollah suffered an “unprecedented blow” after Israel detonated explosive-laden pagers and hand-held radios. The attacks killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 people in two days. Nasrallah had then warned Israel of “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not”.

A Lebanese investigation found that the pagers had been booby-trapped, AFP reported.

Hezbollah members had started communicating via pagers and walkie-talkies after Israel penetrated cellphones. But that did not protect them.

The Mossad, the NYT report said, appears to have created a shell company in Budapest and made the pagers under license from a company in Taiwan. Before the pagers arrived in Lebanon, Israeli operatives installed explosives inside them. The operation was scaled to produce thousands of pagers, requiring sophisticated manufacturing, it said.

Top Hezbollah Leaders Targeted

According to the NYT report, Israel’s investment in greater intelligence gathering first paid off in 2008 when Mossad worked with the CIA to kill top Hezbollah operative, Imad Mugniyah, in Syria. In 2020, Qassim Suleimani, who headed Iran’s Quds Force, flew to Syria’s Damascus and drove in a convoy to Beirut to meet Nasrallah. Israel did not try to kill Nasrallah then for fear of starting a war. It passed on the information to the US and Suleimani was killed in a drone strike at Baghdad airport, the report said.

The October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israeli cities set off the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. As Israel’s counterstrike set off a war in Gaza, Hezbollah started targeting Israel.

Over the past couple of months, Tel Aviv went all-out against Hezbollah. A strike on July 30 killed Fuad Shukr, one of the group’s top military commanders. About three weeks later, a strike killed Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, and 15 other commanders. Days later, another strike killed Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, who commanded several Hezbollah units, including a guided missiles unit. The next day, Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, was killed in a strike.

Chip Usher, a former CIA analyst who has worked with Israeli intelligence, has told NYT, “The secrets of their success come down to a couple of factors. They have a fairly defined target deck. That makes it easier for them to bring a tremendous amount of focus to what they do. They’re in a shadow war with Hezbollah and Iran. And they’re extraordinarily patient.”