A look into Israel's spy tactics in Lebanon, and how it is killing terrorists one by one

Since Hezbollah began firing rockets and sending drones into Israel in October, Israel has killed over two dozen Hezbollah commanders, and Israel’s high-level intelligence-gathering seems to be the key to the assassinations, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times published Friday.

Hezbollah is confronted with the question of how Israel has managed to identify, track, and kill senior officials within the terrorist organization, which reportedly has a reputation for its security and discipline.

Israel has used its technologically-savvy intelligence-gathering capabilities to keep an eye on Hezbollah-dominated parts of Lebanon for a long time. Its tactics include flying drones, intercepting phone calls, and gathering intelligence on social media, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Israel has planted spying devices disguised as rocks or pieces of trash and tapped into the secure fiber-optic landline network that Hezbollah built in Lebanon following the 2006 war.

Examples used in the report are the June assassination of Sami Taleb Abdullah, the head of Hezbollah’s southeastern district when Israel bombed a building in which he and three other operatives were holding a secret meeting. Three weeks later, Israel targeted Mohammad Nimeh Nasser, who commanded the southwestern division, as he was driving in the southern city of Tyre, the report stated.

According to Gen. Mounir Shehadeh, “It’s logical the resistance will have losses because Israel has satellites, spying technologies and the cooperation of intelligence services from other countries.” He has served as the Lebanese government’s coordinator to the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. The term “resistance” refers to pro-Iranian governments and terrorist organizations that are opponents of the US and Israel. 

Shehadeh said Israel has gained access to private landline and cellphone numbers and has used voice-print and facial-recognition technologies to track targets.

Guarding against Israel's watch

To guard against Israeli spying, Hezbollah has told Lebanon’s residents to turn off online connections with security cameras in front of their homes in case of attempted hacking. It also provided instructions for people to stop taking and posting photos with their smartphones. For members of the terrorist organizations, it prohibited using smartphones, calling on members to rely on papers and only use codes for messages on their landlines. 

“Turn it off ... put it in a steel box and lock it in there for a week, two weeks, a month,” said Hezbollah General Secretary Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a speech in February, according to the Los Angeles Times report. “God knows how long this situation will last.”

Israel has still managed to spy on Hezbollah operatives regardless of Hezbollah's efforts, leading the group to believe there is an informant in their midst. 

Experts still say that Israel relies more on spying through electronic channels than from local informants, the report stated.

“The nature of the ongoing war is based on a huge information database Israel is exploiting in its operations,” Ali Al-Amin told the Times. He is an analyst, critical of Hezbollah.

He also said that the Lebanese terrorist organization’s security is so tight that Israel would almost have to be getting its information from insiders.

Since October, nearly 400 Hezbollah members and more than 100 Lebanese civilians have died in the fighting.