Hezbollah members and supporters attend the funeral of Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, who was killed in southern Lebanon in cross-border fire with Israeli troops, in Jbaa, on Nov. 23, 2023. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Israel claimed that it has killed half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon.
This allegedly includes killed Hezbollah members from the elite Radwan unit, senior military commanders and heads of several units in the party including the aerial unit. Regularly after targeted strikes, Israel claims it killed high-ranking Hezbollah officials, however, Hezbollah does not confirm the ranks of its killed members.
The total number of Hezbollah members killed since Oct. 8 is 287 in both Lebanon and Syria, according to L'Orient Today's count.
Hezbollah's Radwan Forces is believed to be made up of around 2,500 fighters.
According to Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated, these are the people responsible for offensive actions."
According to him, "the other half is hiding and abandoning southern Lebanon to [Israeli army] operations."
A source close to Hezbollah told L’Orient Today that the party often does not “reply to what it considers as pure propaganda. This type of propaganda is usually targeted at their own people, at Israeli settlers, in an attempt to boost their morale as the war is ongoing.”
Gallant, who held operational discussions Wednesday morning at the Israeli army's northern command, added that "our main goal was and remains to create a different security situation here, and the residents of northern Israel can return to their homes quietly and safely. We are considering several alternatives to solidify the matter, and the near future will be decisive in this regard."
“Not even five Hezbollah commanders have been killed since Oct.8,” the source noted.
“Furthermore, Hezbollah as an organization does not depend on one or a couple of commanders. In its history, it had great military and strategy leaders like Imad Mughniyeh,” the source close to Hezbollah noted.
Mughniyeh was killed in Damascus in a joint CIA-Mossad operation, having evaded his enemies for 30 years.
“[Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah said it before in a speech that ‘Imad Mughnieyeh has left behind him tens of thousands of trained men who are ready to fight and die for the cause,’ so even if Israel targeted commanders, many more are lurking in the shadows,” the source concluded.
‘Number is overstated’
“It's definitely overstated that half of the commanders were basically killed at this stage,” Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director of research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told L’Orient Today.
“We are seeing many middle-aged Hezbollah commanders whose obituaries mention that they were commanders but for Israel to make such a claim requires us to understand how many commanders are in Hezbollah,” Hage Ali explained.
In official statements to announce the deaths of Hezbollah members killed in combat, only one, Wissam Tawil, has been explicitly labeled as a "commander."
Hezbollah does not disclose the number of its commanders but Nasrallah has repeatedly said that his party has around 150,000 trained fighters.
He also notes that Hezbollah is present in many areas across Lebanon and is also present in Syria “so certainly the party’s commanders are not confined to one area.”
“The Hezbollah organization has also certainly taken some measures to keep its commanders safe,” Hage Ali concluded.