Hezbollah reportedly clears out entire operation from Beirut headquarters
Lebanese media outlet says terror group moved people, computers and other equipment from Dahieh suburb to ‘prepare for the worst’ as it threatens to attack Israel
Hezbollah has entirely evacuated its headquarters in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh as a precaution against a possible Israeli response to the Lebanese terror group’s threatened revenge attack on Israel, Lebanese media reported Monday.
Outlet Al Joumhouria reported that Hezbollah has moved its entire operation — personnel, computers, and other equipment — out of Beirut, including its political wing.
The move came as Hezbollah is threatening to make Israel pay for the recent killing of the terror group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. The report indicated Hezbollah is “preparing for the worst” with regard to Israel’s response to an attack by the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was killed on July 30 in an Israeli airstrike on the terror group’s south Beirut stronghold. Hezbollah has pledged to avenge Shukr, whom Israel blamed for a July 27 missile attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights. A day after Shukr was killed, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
Israel claimed responsibility for killing Shukr but has neither denied nor confirmed being behind the Haniyeh assassination.
Both Hezbollah and Iran vowed revenge for the killings, which came amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament and a Hezbollah ally, stated Monday that “the response is inevitable,” adding that “revenge is a dish best served cold.”
In an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Jumhuriya, Berri remarked that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to carry out these assassinations does not reflect “the behavior of someone who wants to reach a ceasefire.” He did not rule out the possibility of a large-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel as long as Netanyahu remains in power, but noted that Iran-backed groups in the region “are managing the battle in a calculated manner.”
Commenting on Lebanese domestic affairs, Berri said that the conflict with Israel should serve as an incentive to expedite consultations for the election of a new president to strengthen the internal front. The country has now been without an effective president for over two years, with 12 rounds of voting in parliament failing to elect a new leader.
Iran has faced intense diplomatic pressure not to launch a major military response to the killing of Haniyeh in its capital.
Several Hebrew media reports Sunday indicated that Israel was expecting a major Iranian attack to be launched within days, in a reversal of the previous prevailing assumption, which had been that the Islamic Republic — under heavy international pressure — had given up its initial intention to launch an imminent large-scale attack in response to the assassination.
Instead, Iran had been expected to leave the response to Hezbollah, its proxy terror group in Lebanon.
War erupted on October 7 when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a massive cross-border attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas and free the hundreds of hostages that terrorists abducted to Gaza.
The day after the Hamas assault, Hezbollah began attacking along Israel’s border with Lebanon, saying it was acting in support of Gaza. Amid near-daily attacks with rockets and drones that have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, the IDF has responded by hitting Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, raising fears it could escalate into a full-fledged war. With Hezbollah threatening to avenge Shukr, concerns have spiked higher.
Hezbollah attacks continued Monday with the terror group firing 30 rockets at northern Israel the day after the IDF killed several Hezbollah operatives in a drone strike in Lebanon. The were no injuries from the Hezbollah barrage.
