He is preparing for a long war of attrition in
South Lebanon after Israel wiped out its top leadership.
According to two sources familiar with its operations, three
weeks of devastating Israeli blows have diminished Hezbollah's capabilities.
No, but a new military command now directs rocket
fire like this strike on a northern Israeli town and
the conflict with Israeli troops now on the ground in
southern Lebanon. They said the operations room was set
up 72 hours after the group's leaders said Hassan Nasrallah
was killed, a Hezbollah field commander and a source
close to the group told Reuters, the field commander
described the command center as a narrow circle in direct
contact with the field and said it operated in total
secrecy. After Reuters published that information, Hezbollah's media
office issued a statement saying the information attributed to a
Hezbollah field commander was false. Adding that there are
no sources in Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not named a
new leader after Nasrallah with the most likely successor also
killed Andreas Krieg of King's College. London said the
Iran backed group was operating as a decentralized guerilla movement
and so we will see different cells operating more or
less autonomously from the central core. Uh And this
way, they've been, they are a very resilient
fighting force because even though Israel has severely degraded the
strategic leadership, operational leadership of Hezbollah, uh they've
also degraded the communication system. The different cells of
the guerilla movement are still operating fairly well. Hezbollah's
war of attrition would depend on its tunnel network which
Israel says extends for hundreds of miles. Israel's military
released this video footage which Reuters couldn't verify said to
show deep tunnels captured by its soldiers. The Hezbollah
field commander called the tunnels, the foundation of the
battle, Mohaned Haj Ali of the Beirut based Carnegie
Middle East Center. We haven't seen any sophisticated strikes
against tunnel system. Um So far which suggests that
Hezbollah will maintain an ability to strike against Israeli forces
in the South, even as Israel uses immense firepower
ad advance and massive destruction against towns around the border
region. So I think the the question of how
will Hezbollah resist and how strong will the pushback be
? Um is, is banking on whether Israel has
any more surprises up its sleeves or you know,
we've moved beyond that. And now um it's a
regular ground invasion of which Hezbollah is, is uh
fully prepared and will inflict casualties on the Israeli side
. Israel says its strikes have severely depleted Hezbollah's arsenal
and killed hundreds of fighters, but the group still
has a considerable stockpile of weapons and it has yet
to use its most powerful precision missiles. Four sources
familiar with its operations said Krieg of King's College London
again, I think Hezbollah is holding back ballistic missiles
for a kind of time of no return if you
will. These are the weapons of last resort which
is surprising considering that you know, Hezbollah is under
immense pressure. Israeli officials have said Hezbollah has been
firing 100 to 200 missiles and rockets a day on
average and not the thousands expected which shows significant weakening
. It says its operations in Lebanon are aimed at
securing the return of tens of thousands of people displaced
from their homes in northern Israel. More than a
million Lebanese have been displaced according to Lebanese authorities.