The death of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general for more than 30 years, is the latest in a series of stunning blows that Israel has landed on the militant group in the past few weeks. The organisation’s security has been thoroughly penetrated and many of its senior and mid-level commanders have been killed, along with hundreds of its fighters in the year-long attritional air campaign waged by Israel.

Nasrallah came to the position after the killing of Abbas Musawi and his family in an Israeli airstrike in 1993, and he will be replaced. Israel’s leadership decapitation strategy has killed a large number of Hezbollah’s senior military commanders but they, too, will be replaced.

Lebanese and Palestinian men hold portraits of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as they shout slogans during a protest against his assassination in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon.Credit: AP

There is no doubt that the organisation is badly damaged; the replacement leadership will also be under Israeli pressure and it will need to learn quickly or meet the same fate as their predecessors. But these types of conflicts aren’t won simply by killing the leadership.

While the organisation’s former leadership will not be mourned by most inside Lebanon, nor by many regional countries, the true extent of Israel’s success will become more apparent in........

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