•Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah’s body recovered in Beirut
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said today that Hezbollah had been “battered and broken” by continual strikes and the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
During a briefing with the military’s northern command, Gallant said Hezbollah “is a battered and broken organisation, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah”, reports AFP.
Earlier today, the military said about 85 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, including at the major port city of Haifa.
“Hezbollah is an organisation without a head, Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated and all the top command is gone,” Gallant said in a statement issued by his office, appearing to refer to top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine who was widely expected to succeed Nasrallah.
“There is no one to make decisions, no one to act and the firepower that Hezbollah built over the years, with a huge Iranian investment, has reached the level that is similar to what Hamas started with and maybe below that,” said Gallant.
He said that once the “smoke clears… Iran will realise that they have lost their most valuable asset –- Hezbollah”.
October 8 marks the first anniversary of Hezbollah’s launch of of cross-border exchanges with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas which attacked Israel the previous day, triggering war in Gaza.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an our tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,965 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry, which the UN has described as reliable.
Hezbollah has fired some 10,000 rockets into Israel over the past year, with some reaching as far as the central commercial hub of Tel Aviv, according to Israeli officials.
Some 60,000 residents of Israeli communities near the Lebanese border have fled their homes.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the return of residents of the north to their homes a war aim.
Following that announcement, the Israeli military launched a wave of strikes against Hezbollah on September 17, destroying the group’s command centres and weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon and also in Beirut.
The strikes have killed an estimated 1,110 people and forced more than a million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese officials.
