Iranian informant was instrumental for Israel to get Nasrallah: report
An Iranian national had reportedly alerted Israeli officials about the location of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah just hours before he was killed in an airstrike in Beirut, according to a report from the French newspaper Le Parisien.
The report, citing a Lebanese security source, stated that the informant disclosed Nasrallah’s presence at Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where he was scheduled to meet with several senior members of the organization.
On the day of the airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces posted on X, “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.” Later, Hezbollah acknowledged Nasrallah’s death, stating, “Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah… has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years.”
The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had ‘real-time intelligence’ to carry out the deadly strike against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“We had real-time intelligence, an opportunity, an operational opportunity that allowed us to carry out this attack,” Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters while speaking about the operation, which the military called “New Order”.
A report from The New York Times reveals that Israel’s recent achievements against Hezbollah stem from a significant increase in intelligence resources aimed at the Iran-backed group, following the inconclusive 2006 conflict.
The Israeli military and intelligence services did not achieve a decisive victory during that 34-day war, which concluded with a UN-mediated cease-fire.
In the years since, Israel has invested heavily in gathering intelligence on Hezbollah’s leadership and operational strategies.
According to the report, Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, has developed advanced cyber capabilities to intercept Hezbollah communications, including cell phone traffic. New teams have been established within combat units to ensure that critical intelligence is rapidly relayed to troops and the air force, enhancing operational effectiveness.
The NYT report added that Israel’s Mossad agency reportedly established a shell company in Budapest to manufacture pagers under a licence from a Taiwanese firm.
Israeli operatives then embedded explosives in such pagers before they were sent to Lebanon, with the operation scaling up to produce thousands of units, indicating a high level of manufacturing sophistication.
It added that Israel’s enhanced intelligence efforts began to yield results as early as 2008 when Mossad collaborated with the CIA to eliminate key Hezbollah figure Imad Mugniyah in Syria.
