Will Hezbollah Choose to Keep Its Word—or Its Arsenal?
Will Hezbollah Choose to Keep Its Word—or Its Arsenal?
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From Hanin Ghaddar, the Friedmann senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:
“In less than a week, Israel has managed to significantly degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities, communications systems, and chain of command. First, exploding pagers and walkie-talkies undermined the group’s ability to communicate. Then came the [assassination](https://www.npr.org/2024/09/20/nx-s1-5120538/israel-airstrike-beirut-lebanon-hezbollah) of operations commander Ibrahim Aqil on Friday—along with 14 top Radwan Force commanders—which was a major setback for the Lebanese militant group’s top leadership and command unit, the Jihad Council. From the founding members of Hezbollah’s military structure, only Ali Karaki survives today.
This escalation comes after Israeli leaders decided to confront the continuous threat to the country’s north posed by Hezbollah. Last Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet decided to set a new war goal: the safe return of Israeli residents to the country’s north…”
Honestly I don’t think they can’t really choose anything at this point.
Even if they manage to fire many rockets towards Israel, the damage has already been done for them.
They lost capabilities which they’ve been working on in the last 18 years, in less than a week.
I really think that their “best option” is to keep whatever arsenal they still possess, move to the northern side of the Litani river and somehow stay relevant/existing with some diplomatic solution.
I can’t see any scenario in which Israel is backing down at this point.