Hezbollah is searching for answers as to how the location of its commander Fuad Shukr became known to Israel, allowing for the terror leader’s elimination in Beirut, the Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Janoubia reported on Saturday.
Hezbollah officials confirmed to Reuters last week that the body of the commander had been discovered under rubble left by an Israeli airstrike. The IDF affirmed it had carried out the strike, adding that Shukr had been responsible for the deaths of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams.
"The IDF knows how to operate and reach a certain window in a neighborhood in Beirut; it also knows how to attack at a certain point in the underground, and we also know how to maneuver inside very strongly," IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said after the strike.
An anonymous source told Al-Janoubia that Hezbollah's leading theory, given how religiously Shukr avoided technology that would enable his detection, is that someone within the terror group leaked his location and or that Israeli agents had infiltrated the group.
According to the source, Shukr avoided all technology that required his voice, facial recognition, or thumbprint. The terror leader also had his whereabouts heavily coordinated by security.
“The [Hezbollah] party leadership has become certain that its ranks are infiltrated by networks of Israeli agents at high levels,” she confirmed. “The party fears that Israel has complete data on the party's formations, including names, photos, phone numbers, addresses, and audio data."
The anonymous source further revealed, “The former officer in the General Security, before joining the ranks of Hezbollah, moved on the day of his assassination from one of the religious complexes in the suburb to Haret Hreik, where he had an office. Only a few security personnel knew about his movement.”
Making arrests and carrying out investigation
Hezbollah has begun arresting officials within their group who knew Shukr's location, according to the source. “Suspicions revolve around a senior security official in Hezbollah who knew where Shukr and his guest were in the targeted building, as they were waiting for a signal from him for an upcoming meeting with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, shortly before the assassination was carried out.”
The sources explained that “the security official, who was known for his tense relations with the jihadist body in the party, was placed under house arrest by investigators, and his work was suspended until the investigation was completed, and the party is keen not to expose what is happening within its ranks.”
Shukr’s elimination also raised questions on how information was gained on past eliminated terror leaders.
The sources pointed out that "the assassination of Shukr brought to the party's mind the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the heart of the southern suburb, where it is assumed that he was coordinating and under the protection of the security committee headed by Hajj Wafiq Safa and assisted in the suburb by Hajj Ali Ayoub."
She concluded by saying, “the party’s security committee is concerned with any security movement in the suburb; even the security services do not enter it without permission and direct coordination with the head of the coordination and liaison unit, Hajj Wafiq Safa, and the network of cameras planted in the streets and buildings of the suburb is under the authority of this committee.”
Similar fears seem to have reached Iran, according to the New York Times, as dozens of arrests have been carried out in search of parties involved in the elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.