How Israel’s Bold Attacks Crush Hezbollah and Redefine Security

Without extraordinary courage, the IDF would not have been able to operate after the August operation to bring Hezbollah to its knees, said Col. IDF (res.) and the head of the situation room of the northern command, Anan Abbas. The Jerusalem Post in an in-person interview and a very recent follow-up.

One of the two interactions focused on the IDF’s stunning victory over Hezbollah in a massive operation on August 25, while the other looked back at the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallahthe massive IDF airstrike on 23 September, the elimination of several levels of Hezbollah’s leadership, and the 30 September invasion of southern Lebanon.

Looking back on all of these incredibly successful recent operations, Abbas told the Post, “Need is what it takes to hold your ground, get things done, and lead the way. It takes a lot of courage to make major moves. Without that courage and determination, we could not have done anything.

“We attack aggressively and bring the enemy to the point of collapse from fear and the feeling that we are being followed. We are trying to create a new reality to achieve our mission goals,” he said.

Moreover, the head of the situation room, which was at the center of so many key Israeli attacks on Hezbollah at crazy hours of the night, but surprisingly showed little in the way of being tired or fatigued, said: “Through the attacks and actions of our forces, we are making great achievements and breaking the communications chain of the Hezbollah organization, which is canceling some of its of capabilities and brings comparative advantages in combat.

IDF COL. (res.) and the head of the situation room of the Northern Command, Anan Abbas. He is well known as one of the senior Druze Israeli officers and also because his paratrooper son, Jamal Abbas, fell fighting Hamas in Gaza. (credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

“We operate at all times. There’s always someone on duty” in the situation room, he said.

Even before he became one of the heroes of the northern front, Abbas was well known as one of the senior Druze Israeli officers and also because his paratrooper son, Jamal Abbas, fell fighting Hamas in Gaza.

Analyzing the war against Hezbollah throughout the past year, Abbas noted: “They have decided to join the war and are partners with a radical axis led by Iran. They are close to an organization that kills children, rapes women, and has carried out actions as heinous or worse than during the Holocaust (Hamas on October 7, 2023).”

He then stated, “We fought them day in and day out. We have a spectrum of possible responses and capabilities. We exposed Hezbollah (on August 25) when it wanted to carry out a major attack on Israel, including targeting innocent civilians. Sometimes we forget to hit Hezbollah operatives to be precise so that our attacks don’t hit innocents while Hezbollah does the opposite.”

During the war, his situation room directed the IDF to “destroy a lot of Hezbollah forces and infrastructure that could be used to harm civilians.

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“We repulsed the (elite) Radwan forces from near the border; we reduced their capabilities. Our actions have completely prevented them from approaching the border,” he said.

Also, “We continue to hit senior officials of the organization.”

Comparing how the IDF has acted against Hezbollah’s various attacks and provocations throughout 2024, including periods when some criticized the army as being too restrained, Abbas replied: “We are not waiting for a specific incident and we are always ready to strike with force airlines and other organizations”.

Moreover, in the last year, “We sometimes attacked 100 kilometers deep (in Lebanon), 40 kilometers deep or 50 kilometers deep. We analyze what is appropriate for that specific moment.

Attack wherever necessary

“We attack wherever we think we have to attack. We attack to eliminate Hezbollah threats against our military or our civilians. Our attacks are part of the way to increase security to bring the (evacuee) northern residents back to their homes,” he said.

Ahead of the IDF’s major operations on August 25 and September, Abbas said: “From the company commander to the head of the Northern Command, we were and are prepared for the moment of the great order from the high command.

“We will return the residents of the north either through a diplomatic agreement or through an invasion – whatever the political echelon decides.”

Comparing the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when Hezbollah rockets tore into Haifa and other more sensitive places, to what a major war with Hezbollah would do to Israel in 2024, he essentially prophesied before the major attacks from September: “Air Force response capabilities are deeper than in 2006.”

Regarding the Aug. 25 operation specifically, he said secrecy was at unprecedented levels, with “most of the soldiers only being around the day before; and those who learned the secret earlier were a very small group.”

Just before the operation, “I was in the conference room of the Northern Command. All the senior representatives of the various arms of the Northern Command were there. The group went over all the plans and order of their military actions.

“You’re on adrenaline and you’re super prepared… You’re also preparing the home front,” he said.

His role was also “to look at all the personnel and forces involved, the type of ammunition, the next attack and whether they need to be evacuated” on both sides of the border.

Abbas noted that the broader context was that since July 30, when “Hezbollah found out (about the IDF’s killing of its military chief Fuad Shukr), it wanted to respond…. We were prepared for them to try this, but we had the right intelligence and carried out our actions before they could fire.

“We eliminated some of their arsenal and a variety of targets with the preemptive strike, which began early in the morning,” around 4:30 a.m. on August 25.

“There were over 100 planes and we attacked thousands of targets and missiles… Hezbollah did not understand and was shocked by the enormity of what we did.”

He said the first wave only lasted a few minutes, with a total of four waves.

He went on to add that they quickly knew that “the first wave was successful, that they got their hits. But this should and must be continuous.”

The vast majority of the history-changing attack lasted only 20 minutes.

In real time, he said, “The Firepower Center gave a full status update, how many targets were hit,” and there were updates from the Air Force.

“In the situation room, you can see and understand everything … With Hezbollah attacking, we see what they hit. We knew where they were shooting from,” which was part of what helped the IDF quickly destroy Hezbollah missile crew after missile crew.

Abbas then said: “We did more extensive analysis of the operation afterwards.

I saw that I had achieved something substantial. I knew a lot about it right away, but other things take hours to get the full impact you need,” he said.

He hinted that even by September 17, when the siren blasts began and further unhinged Hezbollah, he still had not fully accounted for the August 25 IDF operation.

The whole world knows that Israel practically struck Hezbollah on August 25 and then repeatedly from the air in September, and then on the ground in southern Lebanon in October.

But by August 25, Abbas and all top IDF officers knew that if the operation had gone wrong, thousands of Israeli lives could have been at risk. “It’s a hard thing to weigh,” he said with a dark look.

“We had to limit Hezbollah’s ability to attack the villages in the north. Without the preemptive strike, they could have hit the North with thousands of missiles,” all at the same time.

After August 25, “Hezbollah understood that we can do this anywhere” in Lebanon, which, in fact, the IDF did within weeks.

Causing more harm to Hezbollah

Of course, the major operation on August 25 was not the culmination of the military offensive against Hezbollah, but rather a kind of proof of concept that significantly helped empower the government and the high command to order the complete beheading of Hezbollah in the past. two months.

“We continue this war against the evil axis of Iran and Hezbollah. They want to destroy Israel and form a great Islamic state,” Abbas said.

Furthermore, he continued: “When Nasrallah (after the August 25 operation) claimed to have hit IDF bases such as (intelligence headquarters) at Glilot, he (Nasrallah) knew that this was a lie. He knew his situation was dire. This was all about his decision to join the axis of evil with all its negative effects on the Lebanese economy and population.

“This criminal organization does not let them (Lebanese) live. Beirut was like Paris. Now they are the worst… There is no government and no one is leading or ruling the country. There is no one else to blame” except Hezbollah, he noted.

“The Lebanese must understand this, but they are not brave enough” to overthrow Hezbollah, he lamented.

Of course, the mission isn’t over yet, and while leading up to the war the IDF was most concerned about Hezbollah’s rockets, the terrorist group’s greatest successes in killing Israelis have been with drones.

Addressing the drone threat, Abbas said: “We deal with them every day. They didn’t harm us on a large scale. They have damaging capabilities, but they are limited in scope.

“We have to work all the time to develop a response, learn lessons and reduce the number of drones that kill people,” he said, adding: “We have to find an edge.”

He advocated the use of counter-drones, the old-school Vulcan anti-aircraft system (saying that more such batteries need to be deployed), GPS jamming and other solutions, but also did not imply that a full answer would be forthcoming.

“They have technology in the Air Force. … They’re working on it and they’re starting to get more, but it can’t be resolved in days, it’s more like months,” he predicted.

Furthermore, Abbas stated, “We have to get the technology right. It’s not like the First Lebanon War where everyone is shooting everywhere (like using the Vulcan system). We need the right solution in both technology and human resources, including engineers, which can be anything that will help the defense. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it works.

“In Ukraine, they used a lot of drones and we learned from that as well. We will apply some of those lessons here,” he stressed. Addressing the residents of northern Israel directly, he said: “We must salute you, that you have been true.

Starting October 7, 2024, he said the year should be a better and unifying year for the nation.

“We will always win because we are a strong nation. In our darkest hour, we win.”