Seth J. Frantzman
Jerusalem Post, Sept. 17, 2024
“While Hezbollah can replace losses, it doesn’t have an endlessly deep batting order. This is not only because it has to invest in training and security ahead of recruitment, but it also draws its recruits from a narrow spectrum of Lebanese society.”
Hezbollah is known as a disciplined group. Highly trained, the group invests heavily in its recruits. It is not known to waste them as cannon fodder. It views itself as an elite organization, and within its own structure, there are centers of terrorist excellence, such as the Radwan force.
Hezbollah has achieved this through decades of fine-tuning its capabilities. It has built itself up slowly, first in the 1980s and then in the last two decades as it came to dominate Lebanon. Now, the group faces its worst nightmare: Chaos.
Hezbollah is facing chaos because a large number of its alleged members were wounded on September 17 by exploding communications devices. The full details of this incident are not yet known, and they will only be known over time. However, video and images from Lebanon show men, many of them in their forties, wounded in the hands and faces by exploding communications devices.
The devices are alleged to be pagers. The video shows at least one man pulling his pager from his pocket, only to have it explode in his hand. Gruesome videos, apparently from hospitals in Lebanon, show a large number of men missing parts of their hands or wounded in the legs, stomach, or face. [To read the full article, click here]
