Approximately 250 rockets were launched on Wednesday towards northern Israel, disrupting the holiday calm with successive alerts. Rockets that exploded in open areas caused fires. In the city of Tiberias, a siren was activated for the first time since October. These launches come after the assassination of senior Hezbollah official Sami Taleb Abdullah, whose rank was equivalent to a brigadier general in the IDF. For the past 20 years, Abdullah had led rocket fire toward Kiryat Shmona, the Galilee panhandle, and the Golan Heights. He is the highest-ranking Hezbollah commander to have been killed so far in the war. Abdullah was also active during the Second Lebanon War, serving as a brigade commander and developing rockets in the region. Yesterday, following attacks on Kfar Blum and after recent intelligence gathering on him, the IDF precisely assassinated Taleb using a fighter jet. The operation was led by the Northern Command chief in collaboration with the Intelligence Directorate and the Air Force. “The powerful elimination worries Hezbollah members. They now understand that the IDF knows much more about them than we do. Additionally, the operation indicates that Hezbollah’s field security is not airtight and that the organization’s intelligence system has been penetrated to such an extent that we were able to eliminate such an important sector commander. The IDF managed to infiltrate their networks and systems and identify the right people for elimination,” says Professor Amatzia Baram, suggesting that this also impacts the leader of the terrorist organization. He further added, “[Hezbollah Secretary-general Hassan] Nasrallah realizes that the IDF has the ability to kill him whenever it wants, and I believe this worries him quite a bit. Contrary to popular belief, Nasrallah is not a suicidal Shiite yearning for death (martyrdom). He understands that he would be next in line to die if a full-scale war breaks out. This poses a significant danger for him. Additionally, the elimination is a significant success in the psychological warfare against the terrorist organization, as it leads to great concern among the commanders, who know they could be next.” The professor also referred to the possible responses from the terrorist organization following the significant assassination. “The last time we eliminated senior Hezbollah commanders, the terrorist organization increased the amount of fire as a ‘punishment’ and fired more rockets and missiles at Israel,” he said. “However, they did not cross the unspoken red lines set in the limited war.” NN Blog:
does he know he is dead yet?
