Weakened Hezbollah expected to return to traditional guerilla warfare tactics

Hezbollah declared a “divine victory” in the month-long 2006 war after successfully ousting Israeli forces from Lebanon. And the Iran-backed group is once again facing off with its arch-enemy – but under very different circumstances.

“We want [Israeli soldiers] to enter Lebanese territory (…) if they come to us they are welcome, because what they see as a threat we see as a historic opportunity,” Nasrallah said ironically in a September 19 speech, just eight days before he was killed in a massive Israeli air strike targeting Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in the southern outskirts of Beirut.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) announced Wednesday that eight of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, a day after launching a ground incursion that it described as “limited, localised and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure”.

Hezbollah resumed cross-border fighting with Israel in support of its ally Hamas following the latter’s deadly October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel. And while it might have once relished a head-on confrontation with its arch enemy, it could never have expected to do so with a diminished force and leadership structure in such disarray.

Read more: France 24