An Israeli airstrike on Beirut that destroyed an underground bunker where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was hiding has revealed more information about Israel's intelligence agency and extensive spy network, according to Hindustan Times.
More details about the strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah have now emerged, with a report saying Israel located the Hezbollah leader after receiving information from an undercover Iranian spy.
According to a report in the French newspaper Le Parisien, the undercover agent informed Israeli officials about Nasrallah's presence at Hezbollah's underground bunker in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Intelligence reports revealed that leader Nasrallah was attending a meeting with senior members of the group at a six-building complex located in Dahieh - a densely populated pro-Hezbollah area.
Israeli officials received intelligence on the location of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah just hours before the airstrike.
The Guardian pointed out that the spy who informed the Israelis that leader Nasrallah was on his way to the bunker was Iranian, if true, would be extremely remarkable information because Iran is Hezbollah's main backer.
The British newspaper noted that Nasrallah is extremely careful about his security measures and rarely appears in public. With this personality, the Hezbollah leader will not reveal much about his plans to go to the meeting place in Dahieh.
However, intelligence penetration into Hezbollah's network was so deep that Israel knew Nasrallah and other surviving members of Hezbollah's leadership would meet at the secret location and give the order to bomb.
Matthew Savill, a military analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said Israel had probably "spent years building and maintaining a comprehensive intelligence picture" of Hezbollah.
Hundreds of munitions, including 2,000-pound (907kg) US-made bombs, were used by the Israeli air force in a fierce airstrike on the evening of September 27 that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, reports said.
The report also noted that Israel had been eyeing the site for some time. The commander of the 69th Squadron that carried out the attack, identified by Israeli media as Lt. Col. M., said the crew had been preparing for the attack for “several days” but had been informed of the intended target hours before deployment. The F-15Is are equipped for underground attacks and destruction, which require large amounts of explosives, and are also capable of destroying buildings above ground.
Israeli air force officers said that in the attack, dubbed "Operation New Order", around 100 shells were used and bombs were dropped "every two seconds". Israel claimed to have killed more than 20 Hezbollah members and that the airstrike was justified because leader Nasrallah "deliberately" built Hezbollah's central headquarters under residential buildings in Dahieh.
