Reuters quoted 4 sources familiar with operations Hezbollah The group still possesses a large stockpile of weapons, including its most powerful precision missiles, which it has not yet used, despite waves of air strikes that it says Israel It severely depleted the party’s arsenal.
Two sources, one of whom was a field commander in the group and the other close to it, told Reuters that Hezbollah’s leadership was turbulent in the first days following the assassination. Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, but formed a new “operating room” 72 hours later.
And he was killed Nasrallah And other leaders of the party and a senior Iranian military commander when Israel bombed the group’s underground headquarters in Beirut.
The two sources, who requested that their names not be published due to the sensitivity of the matter, stated that the new command center is operating despite successive Israeli attacks, which means that the fighters are in South Lebanon Able to fight and launch missiles in accordance with Central Command orders.
A third source, a senior official close to Hezbollah, said the group was now fighting war of attrition.
Hezbollah’s field commander said that the fighters enjoy flexibility in implementing orders “according to the capabilities of the front,” and described the new leadership as a “narrow circle” in direct contact with Al-Meida. It is rare for a Hezbollah field commander to speak to international media.
He stressed that the new leadership is working in complete secrecy and did not mention any other details about its communications or structure, and Hezbollah did not appoint a new Secretary-General after Nasrallah, and also after the killing of his potential successor.
Another source familiar with Hezbollah’s operations said that the landline phone network allocated to the group is “essential” to the current communications system, and the sources said that the network survived attacks on the group’s communications system in September.
Avraham Levin, an analyst at the Israeli Alma think tank, said it should be assumed that Hezbollah is “well prepared and waiting” for Israeli forces and that it is not an easy target.
Levin added to Reuters: “The fact that the chain of command was destroyed does not negate the ability to fire on Israeli population centers or attempt to strike Israeli forces.”
This week, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem expressed his support for the ceasefire efforts, but said that the group’s capabilities were “fine.”
A statement this week issued by what the party calls the Islamic Resistance Operations Room said that its fighters continue to confront Israeli incursion attempts and that “the Islamic Resistance sees and hears where this enemy does not expect,” in an apparent reference to Hezbollah’s hidden locations. It is the first public acknowledgment of the existence of a new leadership.
