Israel's targeting of Hezbollah's command structure has killed experienced military and political figures, prompting the group to promote younger leaders in their thirties and forties to fill operational roles.
Israeli strikes over recent years have eliminated not just prominent names but an entire layer of Hezbollah commanders who accumulated military, security and political expertise over decades. With many first-tier leaders dead, younger figures are now taking charge of military, security and organisational work, analysts say, under direct Iranian supervision.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Hezbollah's al-Manar television that the group retains command capability despite the loss of historical leaders. He said Hezbollah now has military cadres able to manage its own affairs and take decisions independently, and pointed to two new generations of young commanders emerging. Iran does not intervene in Hezbollah's military structure or battlefield decisions, he added.
Qassem Qassir, a political writer close to Hezbollah, said young commanders in their thirties and forties from new generations now direct military and security operations and oversee the conflict. They were prepared in advance for leadership roles, he said. Asked about Iran's role in preparing and overseeing these commanders, Qassir told al-Sharq al-Awsat that Iran supports Hezbollah across all fields but does not intervene in military battles or political work. It provides strategic support by preventing strikes on the southern suburbs and Beirut, he said.
Since October 2023, Israel has conducted a concentrated assassination campaign against Hezbollah commanders. Early targets included field operatives such as Taleb Abdullah and Muhammad Nasser, followed by Radwan Force leaders Sami Tueili, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmad Wehbi, and rocket systems commander Ibrahim Qobaisi. The campaign then struck senior military commander Fouad Shukr, then Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his likely successor Hashem Safieddine, as well as Ali Karaki and many field commanders. Subsequent strikes hit new military leaders including Haytham Tabatabai and Yusuf Hashem, and Radwan Force commanders such as Ahmad Ghalib Balout. The strikes have systematically hit the political and military apex, operations centres, missile units and special forces, dismantling much of the command structure Hezbollah built over decades and creating a wide gap in its command and control system, though the group continues reshuffling ranks and appointing replacements.
Ali al-Amin, a political writer and editor of the Janubiyya website, said Hezbollah has suffered an unprecedented purge of its political, military and security elite, losing hundreds of cadres across different levels with thousands of total deaths. He told al-Sharq al-Awsat that while a second generation of commanders exists, Hezbollah has lost capabilities and its efficiency has declined, with multiple power centres emerging after the loss of historical institutional leaders.
Al-Amin stated that Hezbollah in its military and security capacity is receding and deteriorating, and replacements cannot make up for the enormous gap in its command structure and destroyed capabilities and moral losses. He said this represents a war of attrition that Iranian replacements managing the security and military structure cannot relieve, and that it actually accelerates Hezbollah's collapse in this regard because the group's complete dependence on Iran increases Lebanese alienation from it and makes it a permanent target and justification for outside actors.
On claims by Iranian and Hezbollah leaders that Iran does not intervene in military structure or decisions, al-Amin called this illogical, particularly as Hezbollah declares its commitment to the Supreme Leader and is tied to the Revolutionary Guards. If Rezaei has a point, it is that Hezbollah implements decisions in line with the Supreme Leader's directives, but today's confrontation forces complete Iranian attachment. He noted that Hezbollah's firing of six rockets at Israel in retaliation for Khamenei shows such decisions cannot be governed by Lebanese calculations but Iranian ones, despite Hezbollah knowing the results are catastrophic for Lebanon, not Iran.
