A same day that Israel remotely activated pagers in the pockets of Hezbollah members and stunned the group with its covert warfare capabilities, the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet announced that it had foiled an attempt by the Lebanon-based militant group to assassinate a senior defense official deep inside Tel Aviv. The explosive was fitted with a camera and a cellular connection and planted with the help of a local, a Hezbollah asset. Shin Bet did not name the defense official targeted, but the agency confirmed that the assassination would have been carried out remotely from Lebanon.
That failed assassination attempt contrasts with Israel’s successful killing of many senior Hezbollah leaders over the past two weeks, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. But even though that amounts to a severe blow to the morale of its fighters, analysts say the group retains the ability to mount a response that resembles, if not matches, Israel’s own remote tactics, combining remotely triggered bombs with local intelligence from agents on the ground.
A same day that Israel remotely activated pagers in the pockets of Hezbollah members and stunned the group with its covert warfare capabilities, the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet announced that it had foiled an attempt by the Lebanon-based militant group to assassinate a senior defense official deep inside Tel Aviv. The explosive was fitted with a camera and a cellular connection and planted with the help of a local, a Hezbollah asset. Shin Bet did not name the defense official targeted, but the agency confirmed that the assassination would have been carried out remotely from Lebanon.
That failed assassination attempt contrasts with Israel’s successful killing of many senior Hezbollah leaders over the past two weeks, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. But even though that amounts to a severe blow to the morale of its fighters, analysts say the group retains the ability to mount a response that resembles, if not matches, Israel’s own remote tactics, combining remotely triggered bombs with local intelligence from agents on the ground.
Last year, Former Israeli defense minister and military chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon escaped a bomb planted by Hezbollah in Tel Aviv next to a tree. In that case, two Arab Israeli citizens from the West Bank were detained for questioning. As in the thwarted Tel Aviv attack this September, last year’s attack used a Claymore-style mine—the same type planted in a separate attack carried out in March last year near Israel’s Megiddo Junction, in which a Hezbollah operative used a ladder to climb........