The latest tales of derring-do from the annals of Mossad and the IDF’s military intelligence,, with particular attention to their infiltration of Hezbollah, can be found here: “Internal espionage: How Israeli spies infiltrated Hezbollah for decades – NYT,” Jerusalem Post, December
Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was the culmination of extensive spy infiltration and intelligence gathering from the terror group that spanned decades, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
The NYT investigation, based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli, American, and European officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified operations, revealed just how extensively Israeli spies had penetrated Hezbollah as part of two decades of methodical intelligence work in preparation for an all-out war that many expected would eventually come.
The Israeli spies recruited people to plant listening devices in Hezbollah bunkers, tracked meetings between one top commander and his four mistresses, and had near-constant visibility into the movements of the terror group’s leaders, per NYT‘s report.
NYT acknowledged there were major breakthroughs, such as in 2012 when Israel’s Unit 8200 stole a trove of information, including the specifics of the leaders’ secret hide-outs and the group’s arsenal of missiles and rockets. NYT also highlighted significant stumbles, such as in late 2023, when a Hezbollah technician got suspicious about the batteries in the pagers, which were later detonated by Israel, crippling thousands of Hezbollah terrorists.
NYT noted that Unit 8200 scrambled to save their efforts in September when they collected intelligence that Hezbollah terrorists were concerned enough about the pagers that they were sending some of them to Iran for inspection.
This led top intelligence officials to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give the order to detonate the pagers, setting in motion the campaign that culminated in the assassination of Nasrallah due to concerns that the operation would be exposed, the report claimed.
Israel’s great success
The report further stated that the campaign against Hezbollah defanged one of Israel’s greatest adversaries and dealt a blow to Iran’s regional strategy of arming and funding groups bent on Israel’s destruction, with the weakening of the Iran-led Axis reshaping Middle East dynamics, contributing to the fall of Assad in Syria.
Right up until he was assassinated, Hassan Nasrallah did not believe that Israel would kill him, the report claimed. His aides reportedly urged him to leave his underground fortress to a safer location, which Nasrallah brushed off, given his perception that Israel had no interest in a full-scale war. However, he did not realize that Israeli spy agencies had been tracking his every movement for years, according to NYT.
“Hezbollah can’t continue to get support and funding from Iran without being in a war against Israel. That’s the raison d’être for Hezbollah,” said Brig. Gen. Shimon Shapira, a former military secretary for Mr. Netanyahu and the author of “Hezbollah: Between Iran and Lebanon. “They will rearm and rebuild,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Building a Network of Sources
Operations during the 2006 Lebanon War, based on Israeli intelligence gathering, formed the foundation for the country’s extensive infiltration into Hezbollah….
It has been 18 years since Israel’s intelligence gathering about Hezbollah began in earnest, with information the IDF acquired during 2006 war from material gathered both from the trove of documents it seized during that war and from Hezbollah operatives taken prisoner.
Thus for nearly 20 years, the Mossad has infiltrated deeply into Hezbollah ranks. It has been able to locate, and target, Hezbollah’s immense arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles in their hiding places across southern Lebanon. It has found out exactly where all of the Hezbollah commanders lived and even, in one case, where one commander’s four mistresses lived. Its information steadily expanded from 200 “target portfolios” when the 2006 war ended, to tens of thousands of such likely targets by September 2024, when the IDF began to bomb Hezbollah sites in earnest before starting its ground campaign in southern Lebanon.
The IDF, and Mossad, are hewing to the Talmudic injunction: when someone is coming to kill you, rise up and kill him first.
Hux says
Could Mossad do the same infiltration of the terror groups in Europe?
gravenimage says
I’m sure they could, Hux–but there are two issues with this. Terror groups in Europe are somewhat less likely to be a direct threat to Israel. Then, instead of being grateful, many European nations would likely be enraged at Mossad operating in their nations–even if by infiltrating Jihad terror groups they made the citizens of Europe much safer.
So that Mossad would undertake these expensive and dangerous operaions, with little direct use to themselves, and risk alienating nations that–no matter how nominally–have to be considered allies of Israel all make this seem unlikely.
But if European nations were really intent on protecting their people, they would be eager to work with Mossad.
Wellington says
Excellent analysis, gravenimage.
James Lincoln says
She’s one smart cookie, Wellington.
gravenimage says
Thank you so much, Wellington and James. High praise from such savvy commenters as yourselves.
Happy new year to you both.
Jeppe says
Shouldn’t the European intelligence communities do this themselves to begin with?
Namer says
What and risk being called Islamophobic?
gravenimage says
+1
Peter WF says
Thanks. I enjoyed reading this article.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
As w/ several similar stories in the past, where sources and methods are involved, can’t we just be told that Mossad infiltrated Hizbullah, and leave it at that? Why do we need to know the details of how they did everything?
dumbledoresarmy says
Yes, yes, yes, ‘infidel’. We DON’T NEED TO KNOW. I don’t WANT to know… This sort of detail should have a ‘do not publish for 50 years’ lock on it. Because if it is publicly discussed at all, then it will be much, much harder and much more dangerous for those who have to infiltrate such organisations in future!!!
The ONLY justification would be if the ‘how we did it’ statements about said infiltration in fact contain DIS-information; such that the Enemy, when reading those statements and saying to themselves, ‘Ahah, so that’s what they do’, and preparing the counter-measures, will in fact get it WRONG.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Precisely! If anyone did that w/ an American operation, the FBI and the various intel agencies in the US would go after them hammer & tongs. Why is Israel so cavalier in how it deals w/ its secrets?
gravenimage says
Absolutely agree, DDA.
R J B says
It’s hard to believe the shoe is on the other foot in any way. By this i mean I doubt Erdoğan or Ahmed al-Sharaa, AKA Abu Mohammad Al-Jolani could advance this kind of intellegence to conquer Israel or even Jordan. In fact reading in the NYT this kind of info has to have them looking over their shoulder.