Vulnerability helps Israeli intelligence infiltrate Hezbollah

Israeli military and intelligence forces consider Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah group, as one of the top targets to deal with the most powerful militia in Lebanon.

During the 2006 war, Israel tried to kill Nasrallah three times, including once when Mr. Nasrallah left his position right before the target was attacked. In the remaining two times, Israel’s warheads could not penetrate the concrete layer reinforcing the underground bunker where the Hezbollah leader was hiding, two sources familiar with the matter said.

On the evening of September 27, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted the fourth raid. They followed Mr. Nasrallah to a bunker deep underground, below an apartment building in the south of the capital Beirut. The IDF then dropped about 80 tons of bombs on the target to ensure penetration of this bunker.

The IDF had previously launched a series of blows against Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing many of the group’s senior commanders. Israel is also believed to be behind a series of explosions of Hezbollah’s pagers and radios on September 17-18, killing and injuring a number of members of this group.

On September 28, Hezbollah confirmed that supreme leader Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut, while the IDF called Nasrallah “one of the greatest enemies of all time” of Israel, confirming the killing. Hezbollah leader “makes the world safer” and vowed to continue searching for the remaining high-ranking members of Hezbollah.

This is said to be the first time Israel has truly succeeded against Hezbollah after nearly 40 years of confrontation. The factor that brought about this change is the depth and quality of Israeli intelligence since the 2006 war with Hezbollah. The war ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire, in which the IDF was frustrated by its inability to strike down a blow to defeat Hezbollah, despite its overwhelming military might.

Israel then focused its resources on preparing to respond to Hezbollah, and the opportunity for them to collect intelligence data on the armed group appeared when Syria broke out in civil war.

The civil war in Syria broke out in 2011, after the Arab Spring movement appeared in this Middle Eastern country.

Former Israeli intelligence officer Miri Eisin said that after the 2006 war, Israeli intelligence expanded the scope of surveillance, not only targeting the armed wing but also the political wing of Hezbollah, and the group’s relationship with the Guard. Iran’s Islamic Revolution, between Mr. Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Hezbollah is part of an Iran-backed “axis of resistance” aimed at countering Israeli and American influence in the Middle East. The axis also includes Hamas forces in Gaza, Houthi forces in Yemen and other armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

Over the next nearly two decades, Unit 8200, which specializes in signals intelligence, and Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) mined vast amounts of intelligence data to map Hezbollah’s apparatus.

In 2012, Hezbollah increased its strength and deployed forces to Syria to support the al-Assad government in repelling rebel groups. To conduct combat operations in Syria, the group must increase its forces to meet the needs of the conflict.

This is a “loophole” for Israel to conduct large-scale intelligence campaigns, install spies or search for those who want to defect, thereby determining who is in charge of the group’s combat activities, who is promoted or transformed. substance or return after a period of absence.

“Syria marks the beginning of Hezbollah’s expansion,” said Randa Slim, researcher at the Middle East Institute, Washington, USA. “That weakens their internal controls and opens the door to intrusion.”

The war in Syria also generates large amounts of data that Israeli spies can easily access and analyze.

Obituaries of Hezbollah members killed during fighting in Syria are one of them. The obituary includes information such as hometown, place of death, and friends of the deceased can be identified through condolences on social networks.

Funerals are even more revealing, sometimes even drawing high-ranking leaders out of hiding to offer condolences, if only for a moment.

A former senior Lebanese politician in Beirut said Hezbollah being infiltrated by Israeli or US intelligence was “the price they had to pay” for participating in the war in Syria.

“They exposed themselves in Syria,” according to the former official. This normally discreet armed group suddenly had to keep in touch and share information with Syrian intelligence or Russia, a country that is also deploying military forces to support President al-Assad, causing them to be constantly monitored by the US. follow.

“From a group with high discipline and strict membership selection, they gradually changed,” said Yezid Sayigh, a researcher at the Carnegie Center for the Middle East, headquartered in Lebanon. “Complacency and arrogance appear and with changes in the ranks of members, the group gradually becomes weak.”

Israel also collected a lot of information about Hezbollah thanks to the development of techniques and technological advantages, through reconnaissance satellites, UAVs and cyber attack capabilities that can turn phones into eavesdropping devices.

This country collects so much data that it established Unit 9900, which specializes in writing image screening algorithms to find even the smallest changes, such as signs of homemade bombs placed on roadsides, ventilation ducts or areas that are reinforced concrete, signs of possible underground bunkers.

Once Israel identifies a Hezbollah member, that person’s daily activities will be entered into a database, extracted from devices such as his wife’s phone or the smart device he uses.

Any change in those routines is a signal for Israeli intelligence officers to begin screening. At one point, Israel monitored the schedules of Hezbollah commanders to see if they were suddenly called upon to participate in an attack.

These activities all take time and patience to build. Israeli intelligence has such a large “target bank” that during the three days of the recent air campaign, Israeli warplanes raided thousands of positions considered to be hideouts of Hezbollah members, according to statements. public announcement from the IDF.

“Israel has a lot of capabilities, a lot of stored intelligence waiting to be used,” said a former Israeli official. “We could have used these capabilities long ago in the war, but we didn’t.”

The Israeli Cabinet in mid-September announced an operation to bring back home about 60,000 people who were displaced by the war with Hezbollah.

After this statement, the IDF increased military operations against Hezbollah, causing heavy losses to the group, culminating in the death of leader Nasrallah and a series of senior commanders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that killing Nasrallah was a “necessary condition” for Israel to achieve the goals it set.

“Israel’s campaign is not over,” Prime Minister Netanyahu declared. Israel on the night of September 30 launched a “limited offensive” ground campaign into southern Lebanon, seemingly aimed at establishing a buffer zone north of the border.

“Hezbollah has not disappeared. We have dealt blows and weakened the group. The group is in a period of chaos and grief,” said Ms. Eisin, a former Israeli intelligence officer. “But they still have a lot of military capabilities that pose a threat.”