Southern Lebanon has seen a particularly bloody day, with a series of targeted assassinations of Hezbollah leaders and allied groups…
Israel has eliminated about 20 Hezbollah leaders since October,
as part of a solidarity campaign launched by Hezbollah following Hamas’s attack on southern Israel.
Security breach… or technological superiority?
In June, Israel killed Sami Taleb Abdullah, 55, the head of Hezbollah’s southeastern region, by bombing a building where he was holding a secret meeting with three other members. Three weeks later, it killed Mohammad Ni’meh Nasser, the head of the southwestern region, while he was driving in the southern city of Tyre.
One of the most important questions facing the Lebanese party is: How was Israel able to identify, track and kill senior officers in the group, which is known for its high levels of operational security and discipline?
The recent operations indicate a major security breach within Hezbollah’s ranks, allowing Israel to pinpoint and track the group’s top officers. In recent years, Israel has relied on its technological superiority to gather intelligence, including using drones, intercepting phone calls, and planting spy devices disguised as rocks or pieces of trash. In response to these threats, Hezbollah has tightened security measures, including cutting off internet connections to security cameras and instructing people not to take and post photos on their smartphones. As for its members and their families, it has banned the use of smartphones altogether, ordering them instead to rely on pagers, mail, and encrypted messaging over its landline network. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has also told his members to store their phones in steel boxes for extended periods. The Lebanese group has also beefed up the security of its landline network after a recent breach led to at least two assassinations, according to a Lebanese security source who spoke on condition of anonymity. However, Israel’s ability to penetrate these procedures and assassinate leaders suggests that there may be spies within the ranks of the Lebanese party, especially with Lebanon’s economic crisis making it easy to recruit agents for small amounts of money.
Lebanese authorities say they have made several arrests amid a surge in intelligence gathering attempts. Many of those arrested were implicated after responding to social media advertisements for jobs at a purported real estate company, and then agreeing to photograph certain locations, initially non-sensitive, but eventually more restricted areas such as the southern suburbs of Beirut where the party is headquartered.
One suspect was arrested late last year while mapping the streets there in 3D, while monitoring the radio spectrum on behalf of a foreign company believed to be an intelligence front.
Foreigners have also been implicated: Last year, a Russian national was arrested while trying to flee the country after being filmed trying to break into a Hezbollah-owned building in the suburb.
Hezbollah has not been far from achieving intelligence successes, launching continuous attacks on Israeli intelligence infrastructure along the border, weakening Israeli defense capabilities such as Iron Dome. The group also released a video showing an Iranian-made drone filming the Ramat David Air Base in Israel.
The Conflict’s Aftermath
Since the conflict began in October, some 400 Hezbollah members and more than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed. Some 90,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, and some 60,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
These ongoing operations reveal a complex conflict that combines high-tech and intelligence tactics, raising questions about the security and political future of the region.