Growing Israeli assessment Nasrallah killed in Beirut strike Israeli official confirms to ToI that strike targeted Lebanese terror chief: ‘Very hard to imagine him coming out alive’ * Heavy damage reported in Safed after Hezbollah rocket fire. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-27-2024/ Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that Israel says targeted the headquarters of the Palestinian terror group’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Israel did some very amazing tricky things to get little bombs placed in the batteries of Hezbollah pagers and two-way radios. Context for the following thoughts: I'm just making best guesses here. The following is not based on articles that I've read. The explosions of Hezbollah pagers and two-way radios injured a large percentage of first tier Hezbollah officers. This was all part of a long range plan (years in the making) by Israel to weaken Hezbollah in preparation for a full scale invasion of Lebanon. The plan is ongoing and working as envisioned. Israel has identified, located and destroyed some of the Hezbollah leaders. The IDF will invade Lebanon and further execute to this plan. I'm guessing this will be about a four week expedition. Do I think it is a good idea? I don't know. I'm reserving judgment on that until after I see how it plays out and what the Israeli goals actually are.
War is horrible, but this was forced upon Israel . Again, the moral IDF, warning to civilians to evacuate areas of Beirut saved civilians lives. The people listened and are leaving those areas. They left before the bombing. A lot of civilian lives saved by Israel providing advanced notice. On the other side, Safed Israel, had direct hits in to homes by Hezbollah rockets. Israel will attack additional strategic Hezbollah targets that are under the buildings in Dahiya neighborhood. It can be missiles and bunkers that are there, I don't know. AP sources report, that at this time the communication with Hezbollah leadership lost. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-27-2024/
Bibi's visit to the US was partly a move designed to 'trick' Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah into thinking he was safe while the Israeli premier was away, one senior Israeli official revealed. IDF says terror chief Hassan Nasrallah, other Hezbollah leaders, and allegedly an Iranian general killed in Beirut strike Dozens of anti-ship missiles stored by Hezbollah under buildings in the Lebanese capital of Beirut were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes overnight, according to the military. Hezbollah was known by the IDF to be in possession of the Chinese C-704 and C802 missiles, as well as the Iranian Ghader, which have ranges of up to around 200 kilometers.
It seems obvious that Israel has a source of information that is deep in Hezbollah. I think it is how they knew where Nasrallah was and some other strikes. I, of course don't know if Israel has a person or some access to communications but I consider it amazing at the same amazing level as getting bombs in Hezbollah pagers and two-way radios. I hope their secret source keeps working. It's unfortunate that they didn't have a similar source in Hamas prior to October 7.
I think the conception was very different. Israel took the Hezbollah threat seriously and invested in a lot of intelligence, and strategic planning. Unlike with Gaza, where the view was of militants with AK47s, the strategy in Lebanon is to have a bank of targets, and lessons learned form Gaza and 2006 Lebanon war 2. If the same approach was used in Gaza, maybe the war would have ended much faster. So far IDF has advantage in Lebanon, but ground war, is another thing, the terrain is very different, it's not a tank friendly environment, hills etc. In 2006 tanks entered and were blown up by mines, there were casualties almost immediately. So a different strategy is needed for ground operation. As to Iran, Iran is not one people, there are like a dozen groups of people there, Azerbaijani, Persians, Kurds, Arabs, Turk tribes live in different places of Iran. Turk tribes include many different tribes and ethnic groups. Azeri and Turkmen ethnic groups, Baluch Iranian Tribes, Gil or the so-called Gilaki Iranian people, etc Iran can break a part like Soviet Union.
Photos of Syrians celebrating the assassination of Nasrallah last week put the spotlight on the brutal activities of the terror group's role in sex slavery, mass starvation and kidnappings in the Syrian civil war which led to the deaths of over half a million Syrians. Walid Phares, a leading expert on Hezbollah and Lebanon, indicates that Hezbollah has "committed ethnic cleansing" in Syria. He said Hezbollah "was behind the uprooting of millions of Syrians, of all communities, mainly Sunni. They have perpetrated rape. They have perpetrated mass sexual abuse, including keeping sexual slaves." "The victims of Nasrallah in Syria are hundreds of thousands, does he deserve mercy from Muslims?" Iraqi-based journalist Omar AlJmmal said on X. UAE-based journalist Saif alDareei shared in a post on X a video he said depicted the "joy" of residents in Syria's Idlib province after news of Nasrallah's killing. "Hezbollah did what the Jews did not do against our brothers in Syria," he said.
