The fighting against Israel is led by the field commanders of Hezbollah’s geographic units operating under the Southern Front headquarters, as well as the field commanders of the Radwan unit in southern Lebanon. The geographic units and the Radwan unit combat Israel in tandem and independently from southern Lebanon.
The units listed above have both independent and overlapping capabilities for shooting rockets, and missiles, sniping, sabotage, and intelligence gathering. The activity of the units is parallel, with each unit having its commander in the various geographical areas of southern Lebanon.
As of this writing, 15 Hezbollah field commanders and top operatives in southern Lebanon have been killed: 9 from the Radwan unit, 5 from the geographical units, and 1 from the aerial unit.
Israel must continue to target Hezbollah’s field commanders to impede its operational activities and increase the symbolic-cognitive and psychological impact.
On April 16, Israel carried out two more eliminations in southern Lebanon:
The first elimination targeted Hajj Ismail Yusuf, also known as Abu Ja’far al-Baz. He was the commander of the coastline sector in Hezbollah’s Southern Front headquarters. An airstrike was used to carry out the elimination in the town of Ain Baal. Abu Ja’far’s status in Hezbollah was similar to that of a brigade commander.
Abu Jaafar was a top Hezbollah operative. As part of his responsibilities, he promoted and planned rocket and anti-tank missile launches from Lebanon’s coast. He also coordinated and plotted many terrorist strikes on Israel.
Hussein Qassem Kashrat, an Amal movement operative, was killed in the incident.
The target of the second elimination was Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Sh’houri. Sh’houri served as commander of the rocket and missile unit of the western sector of the Radwan unit. The elimination was carried out by an airstrike in the area of the village of Al-Chehabiyeh, shortly after the first elimination of Abu Jaafar.
Schori was responsible for planning and executing many rocket launches into Israeli territory and operated to promote and plan rocket and missile launches into Israel from the central and western sectors of southern Lebanon. Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadallah, an operative in the rocket and missile unit, was also killed.
The ongoing elimination of the ranks of field commanders in southern Lebanon is critical since they are the operational functions that employ the main firepower against Israel. These assassinations harm Hezbollah’s operational activity to some extent, but not for long.
Everyone has a replacement. Also the experienced and professional knowledge centers. However, beyond a certain operational damage, the elimination also has a symbolic-consciousness-psychological effect, which is sometimes no less important than the de facto operational damage. In a state of war, it is sometimes even more important, in that it also affects operational activity.
The constant feeling of infiltration and persecution generated by these eliminations causes the enemy to halt and investigate the intelligence-security breach. This pause has an impact on his activities.
