After eleven months of a war of attrition imposed by Hezbollah in support of Hamas in Gaza, Israel changed the rules of the game in the space of two weeks by eliminating the party’s secretary general and most of its senior military commanders .
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With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
By combining targeted assassinations and intensifying airstrikes, Israel has put enormous pressure on Hezbollah.
Also read[En direct] Lebanon: Hezbollah confirms the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah
In just two weeks, the Israeli army killed Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, an as-yet-undetermined number of senior political and military officials in Friday’s strike, and most of its top military commanders.
In June and July, it succeeded in eliminating the leaders of two or three territorial units deployed in southern Lebanon and the supreme commander Fouad Chokor.
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To this must be added several thousand Hezbollah reservists injured in the explosion of pagers and walkie-talkiesTuesday September 17 and Wednesday September 18.
Beheaded, Hezbollah does not seem to have been knocked out
And yet, even when decapitated, Hezbollah does not seem to have been knocked out.
The party continues its military operations against Israel even if their pace has decreased. This Saturday, he claimed responsibility for firing dozens of rockets in five operations.
Its media continue to function, as do its main social institutions.
It remains to be seen whether this is a last stand or a tenacious desire to continue the fight. The next few days will tell us.
This is a terrible blow considering the person Hassan Nasrallah represented. He was still the incarnation since 1992 of the organization as a political leader, but beyond that, since he had a religious aura. He is a Sayyed, a descendant of the family of the prophet, of the lineage of the prophet. He was revered, he was the object of veneration on the part of the Shiite population in Lebanon, and he was closely linked to Tehran, he was intimate with the Supreme Leader. It is a very hard blow indeed, which comes after the decapitation of the entire military structure, because all the military leaders, the entire military hierarchy has just been decapitated in recent days by targeted strikes by the IDF. So, this is a very significant weakening of the organization. So the question is whether she will be able to survive. Yes, because Hezbollah is not going to disappear with the death of Nasrallah. However, there is a lasting weakening which will not be without consequences both in Lebanon and abroad.
Death of Nasrallah: a “lasting weakening which will not be without consequences both in Lebanon and abroad”, according to David Rigoulet-Roze
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