Israel has carried out a daring air strike against Hezbollah’s headquarters. The Islamist terror group’s underground command centre, located below civilian buildings in Dahieh, Beirut, was hit by what Israeli media are describing as ‘tens of tons of explosives’ on Friday night. There are unconfirmed reports that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike. Reuters is quoting a Hezbollah source saying Nasrallah is alive, but if he has been eliminated it would represent a seismic change in the Middle East. Nasrallah has led Hezbollah – ‘the Party of Allah’ – for more than three decades and has tightened the organisation’s stranglehold over Lebanon while waging war on Israel on behalf of its funder, Iran.
Hezbollah stepped up its efforts against the Jewish state on 8 October last year, one day after Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 people, raped women and took 250, including children, as hostages. Hezbollah has fired 9,300 rockets at Israel’s north in the past eleven months, and while these attacks have garnered limited coverage in the international media, attention was drawn in July when a rocket struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Israeli Golan Heights, and killed 12 Arab children. In the past ten days, Israel has escalated its operations against Hezbollah, detonating thousands of pagers used by the terror group and killing top commanders.
Whether Nasrallah is dead or alive, there will be plenty of talk of vengeance but the ultimate decision lies with Iran. It could order Hezbollah to unleash its almighty arsenal, which includes an estimated 150,000 missiles, thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles and thousands of smaller drones. Alternatively, it could orchestrate another aerial attack like the one seen off by the Israelis and a US-led multinational force in April. Or it could step back and use its restraint as leverage to secure a revival of the Iran nuclear deal by the outgoing Biden or an incoming Harris administration.
Whatever happens next, Israel has tonight sent its enemies a clear message: if our people are not safe, then neither will you be.
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