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Inside battered Hezbollah, words of defiance: ‘All red lines are gone’

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and its fighters remain defiant, even expressing confidence, despite escalating Israeli attacks on its top commanders and missile arsenal that culminated Friday with the assassination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

With little significant retaliation yet from the Iran-backed Hezbollah – and uncharacteristically limited rhetoric from Iran vowing revenge – Israel expanded its airstrikes over the weekend to other anti-Israel militant groups in Lebanon and as far away as Yemen.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

The Lebanese militia Hezbollah has lost its charismatic leader, who delivered battlefield gains for decades, and absorbed a series of heavy blows from Israel. How ready are its fighters to resist Israel on the ground?

That has raised questions about whether Israel has diminished Iran’s most potent regional ally in just two weeks. It has killed 20 members of its leadership pyramid, wounded 3,000 militia members, and cut key lines of communication by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 1,000 Lebanese dead, both fighters and civilians.

Yet Hezbollah officers say in interviews that they have restored most of their communications network and that the most powerful and precise elements of their missile arsenal remain intact. Hezbollah will soon be ready to fight back “full throttle.”

“We are going to show the world what we are capable of doing,” says a Hezbollah missile specialist, who gives the pseudonym Hassan.

“All red lines are gone” after the assassination of Mr. Nasrallah, he says. “We are going to fight this war without any rules.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and its fighters remain defiant, even expressing confidence, despite escalating Israeli attacks on its top commanders and missile arsenal that culminated Friday with the assassination of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

With little significant retaliation yet from the Iran-backed Hezbollah – and uncharacteristically limited rhetoric from Iran vowing revenge – Israel expanded its airstrikes over the weekend to other anti-Israel militant groups in Lebanon.

It also struck other members of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” as far away as Yemen.

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

The Lebanese militia Hezbollah has lost its charismatic leader, who delivered battlefield gains for decades, and absorbed a series of heavy blows from Israel. How ready are its fighters to resist Israel on the ground?

That has raised questions about whether Israel has diminished Iran’s most potent regional ally in just two weeks. It has killed 20 members of its leadership pyramid, wounded 3,000 militia members, and cut key lines of communication by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 1,000 Lebanese dead, both fighters and civilians.

On Monday, a U.S. official was quoted as saying Israeli military chiefs had warned Washington that a limited Israeli ground incursion into southern Lebanon was “imminent” to clear Hezbollah infrastructure along the border.

Also Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said on the social media platform X that it had “dismantled” Hezbollah’s “Missiles and Rockets Force” with a week of airstrikes. On Saturday the IDF said it intensified operations against Hezbollah’s “force build-up” by targeting “key weapon manufacturing sites” and, days earlier, striking smuggling routes from Syria.

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