The IDF on Sunday released video footage of its assassination of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, which took place on September 27, 2024, on the same day as his funeral.
That day, F-15I aircraft from the 69th fighter squadron at 6:20 p.m. dropped close to 100 bombs on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the heart of Beirut, killing the terror group’s chief of 32 years and reordering the region.
Nasrallah was killed, alongside Ali Karaki, Hezbollah's new military chief designate and current commander of the southern front, who the IDF has just missed, as well as other Hezbollah commanders.
The attack involved a decade of intelligence collected both by the IDF and the Mossad, as well as a variety of last-minute deceptions to ensure that Nasrallah would not flee the area.
It also involved GBU-31 bunker-buster bombs in order to drive down deep enough under the large residential building in Beirut where the headquarters was hidden.
IDF Brig. Gen. Amichai Levine, the newly appointed commander of the IAF's Hatzerim Airbase, said at the time that a large number of aircraft dropped additional bombs one after the next every few seconds to ensure there was no way Nasrallah could survive.
Ironically, Levine also added that it was his birthday and that taking out Nasrallah was an unusually good birthday present.
Despite the stunning attack by the air force and expectations that Hezbollah might finally fire its full arsenal of likely still over 100,000 rockets (out of a pre-war over 150,000 rockets) on Israel, the terror organization had only fired 90 rockets on the Jewish state following Nasrallah’s death that day.
In the broader sense, the IDF at the time correctly predicted that it believed that the death of Nasrallah could: 1) potentially bring Hezbollah to a ceasefire, which would make the northern border sufficiently secure for Israel’s 60,000 evacuated residents from there; 2) bring Hamas back to the negotiating table to exchange Israeli hostages.
The underground command center was embedded beneath a residential building, the IDF noted in its report, where Nasrallah and his top commanders were coordinating terrorist activities against Israel at the time of the attack.
Nasrallah's 32-year leadership
During Nasrallah's 32-year leadership of Hezbollah, he was responsible for directing nearly all of the group’s major terror operations and strategy, including attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, as well as international attacks that killed other nationals worldwide.
Under his command, Hezbollah joined Hamas in attacking Israel with rockets on October 8, 2023, further escalating violence in the region.
Nasrallah had ordered thousands upon thousands of attacks on Israel over the last year with rockets, anti-tank missiles, and drones.
His daughter Zainab was reportedly killed in the same Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hassan Nasrallah began his political journey in 1976 at the age of 16 when he traveled to Iraq and joined the Shia Islamic movement, the Dawa Party. In 1982, he co-founded Hezbollah with Iranian support after leaving the Amal Movement, quickly securing a senior position and overseeing the Bekaa area by age 22.
By 1985, he was Deputy Chairman of the Beirut Council and became the military leader in the city. In 1987, he was appointed Head of the Operational Executive Council and became a member of Hezbollah's Supreme Council. Following the IDF’s assassination of Abbas Musawi, Nasrallah assumed leadership of Hezbollah in 1992.
Ali Karki had commanded Hezbollah’s Southern Front since 2007, overseeing the group’s military activities in southern Lebanon. He was responsible for building extensive weapon stockpiles and deploying thousands of operatives along the Israeli border. He was due to replace Fuad Shukr, who Israel killed on July 30, as Hezbollah’s military chief, second only to Nasrallah.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, Karki had directed rocket launches, anti-tank missile attacks, and UAV strikes, resulting in significant damage among Israeli civilians and soldiers and causing extensive damage in northern Israel.
Karki’s strategy involved embedding Hezbollah within civilian areas, utilizing homes and the local population as human shields in their assaults on Israel. A founding member of Hezbollah's military operations in the 1980s, he has a history of orchestrating numerous terror attacks against Israelis.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.