Nasrallah was reportedly confident that Israel would avoid full-scale war with Hezbollah, dismissed concerns from his aides and resisted calls to relocate from his underground bunker, where he was ultimately killed on September 27.
Nasrallah's belief that he was untouchable persisted even after Israel had detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives just two weeks prior. The report highlights Israel's successful infiltration of Hezbollah’s operations, a result of two decades of intelligence-gathering efforts. The operation was bolstered by agents who planted listening devices in Hezbollah's bunkers, enabling Israel to monitor the group's leadership meetings and track its members.
Israel’s intelligence windfall came when Unit 8200 seized critical documents detailing Hezbollah's rocket arsenal and the locations of key leaders' hideouts. These revelations led to Israel tricking Hezbollah into purchasing booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies. By September 2024, Israeli intelligence officials urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to detonate the explosives hidden in these devices, fearing Hezbollah was close to discovering them.
On September 17, Israel detonated the pager bombs, killing dozens of Hezbollah operatives and wounding thousands more. The next day, the walkie-talkie explosions further disrupted Hezbollah’s communications network. The strikes helped pave the way for Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows, which targeted Hezbollah’s weapons, rockets, and missile stockpiles, severely damaging its military capabilities, including eliminating much of its leadership, with Nasrallah among the casualties.
This operation followed months of ongoing Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel, in support of Hamas, after the October 7 massacre. These attacks resulted in numerous Israeli casualties, including the deaths of 12 Druze children in a July strike, and forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes due to the constant bombardment.
0 Comments