One Year After the “Pager”: Hezbollah Secretly Reorganizes

لبنان اليوم

A report published by the French newspaper “Le Figaro” stated that Hezbollah is currently operating almost entirely underground, working in complete secrecy to rebuild its leadership structure and military capabilities, a year after the Israeli operation known as “The Beeper.”

The newspaper clarified that the party “ostensibly shows responsiveness to the decision to disarm, but in reality it is moving in the opposite direction in its strongholds,” noting that its organization and military work are proceeding according to a new system characterized by complexity and secrecy.

According to the report, the party is reorganizing its ranks and strengthening its capabilities through several measures.

The party’s capabilities have not been completely destroyed, and it is working to restore them in complete secrecy.

The party has formed a new military structure led by young leaders, more compatible with modern technological developments.

It redistributed responsibilities within its military structure in order to give secrecy to tasks and leaders.

The old generation of leaders has been replaced by a second and third generation that is more modern.

The party reduced its external contacts and returned a number of fighters who did not participate in the war to its strongholds in the Bekaa region.

According to the newspaper, the party still maintains relations within some Lebanese security agencies, including those originally tasked with following up on the disarmament file.

In a similar context, Sky News Arabia quoted an Israeli security source as saying that Israel had submitted 1,734 complaints to the Joint Ceasefire Committee (the Mechanism) regarding what it considers violations by Hezbollah.

The source added that the Lebanese army was asked to deal with 840 complaints, and reported that it had dealt with 528 of them, while the Israeli army was forced to deal directly with 88 cases, while hundreds of other cases were recorded in which the Lebanese army took field action.

In parallel, European sources confirmed to the same channel that the possibility of launching an expanded Israeli strike against Lebanon “may be only a matter of time,” amid an internal debate in Tel Aviv about whether the Lebanese state is considered “complicit” or “incapable” of controlling the party’s activity.

This comes at a time when the Lebanese government decided last August to disarm Hezbollah, as part of a national plan announced by the Prime Minister: Nawaf Salam.

The plan, drawn up by the Lebanese army, is based on five stages aimed at withdrawing illegal weapons south of the Litani River before the end of this year, but the party, supported by Tehran, quickly rejected it, describing the decision as a “sin.”

Salam affirmed, in a statement on Thursday, that “Lebanon is committed to ending the process of confining weapons south of the Litani before the end of the year,” calling on Israel to abide by its international obligations, especially withdrawing from the occupied Lebanese territories and stopping its continuous attacks.