How did Israel prepare for the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah?

By – Elijah J. Magnier

Since the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Iraq in 2020 on the orders of President Donald Trump, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has emerged as the de facto leader of the “Axis of Resistance.” He has consequently become the primary target of both the United States and Israel, notably after Hezbollah declared its support for the war on Gaza as a secondary front.

In response, Israel has continuously updated its high-value target list, employing advanced brilliant warfare technologies from the fifth and sixth generations to locate and eliminate resistance leaders, whether at their homes or in their meeting places. The assassination of Hezbollah’s leadership—most notably Sayyed Nasrallah, whose death Israel claimed following a large-scale strike—fits into Israel’s broader strategy to neutralise what it perceives as one of its most significant threats. This effort is not recent but has been in motion since 2006, when Israel, unprepared for war, faced a less powerful Hezbollah. Today, the Israeli military is far better equipped, both technologically and strategically, to engage Hezbollah in full-scale conflict.

A significant component of this preparation has been the vast accumulation and analysis of intelligence collected over the past 18 years. Israel’s intelligence capabilities have evolved significantly, leveraging a combination of human intelligence (HUMINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT), geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), and cutting-edge cyber warfare to expose Hezbollah’s vulnerabilities. The Israeli intelligence community, led by agencies such as Mossad and Aman (the military intelligence directorate), operates a complex network of informants, technical surveillance, and advanced data analytics systems that feed into real-time military decision-making.