Israel has been collecting intelligence on Hezbollah for years, developing advanced capabilities that allowed it to pinpoint the location of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, within a short timeframe, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
According to the report, an Israeli plan to eliminate Nasrallah was first proposed at the onset of the current conflict. “In the days following October 7, Israeli fighter jets were dispatched with orders to strike Nasrallah’s location, which had been identified by the IDF Intelligence Corps. However, the mission was called off due to a request from the White House,” an Israeli source told the newspaper.
The source added that on Friday, Israeli intelligence once again pinpointed Nasrallah’s position—this time within a command and control bunker—during what appeared to be a high-level meeting involving several senior Hezbollah officials and a prominent Iranian commander from the Revolutionary Guards.
The report highlights that since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israeli intelligence units have been systematically gathering vast amounts of information on Hezbollah, creating an extensive profile that includes not only its military infrastructure but also its political ambitions and ties to Iran. “Israeli intelligence expanded its operations and began assessing Hezbollah as a comprehensive entity, scrutinizing its connections with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Nasrallah’s relationship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” Col. (res.) Miri Eisen, a former advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister, told the newspaper.
A former senior Israeli official explained that over the years, Israeli intelligence has built a massive “target bank” for potential operations. “Israel accumulated significant capabilities and intelligence, waiting for the right moment to deploy them,” he said. “We could have acted on this intelligence during previous conflicts—but we chose not to.”