Hezbollah tasked with burying dead, aiding supporters, probing intel breaches
'The people' are the priority, according to senior official Hassan Fadlallah – 'to shelter them, to remove the rubble, to bid farewell to the martyrs and, in the next phase, to rebuild'
Hezbollah’s plans after the ceasefire will begin with burying its dead and providing supporters with aid, according to Reuters on Thursday.
Citing four senior officials, the report said that the terrorist organization believes several thousand of its operatives have been killed, most since Israel launched an offensive in September.
“The people” are the priority, according to senior official Hassan Fadlallah. “To shelter them, to remove the rubble, to bid farewell to the martyrs and, in the next phase, to rebuild."
The group may have lost up to 4,000 people, according to one source, with official Lebanese figures standing at around 3,800. This number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Much of Hezbollah’s leadership in the upper and middle echelons have been eliminated, starting with a massive beeper attack in mid-September and culminating in the targeted killing of Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah a few weeks later.
This paints a starkly different picture from Lebanese waving Hezbollah flags in the hours after the ceasefire went into effect, returning to southern Beirut and southern Lebanon.
The IDF has fired warning shots several times, arresting four suspected Hezbollah terrorists, and reiterated warnings to residents of southern Lebanon to avoid areas where Israeli troops are still deployed. Approaching IDF-controlled areas constitutes a violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, the IDF said.
“Hezbollah is like a wounded man,” a security official told Reuters. “Does a wounded man get up and fight? A wounded man needs to tend to his wounds.”
Much of Lebanon is now rubble, including most of southern villages where the IDF entered since launching a ground invasion in early October. Many buildings in other parts of the country – including Beirut, particularly the southern Dahieh stronghold – lie in ruins.
Hezbollah will also conduct investigations into how Israel landed so many crushing strikes against the group, particularly into intelligence breaches.