Weakened and infiltrated, Hezbollah vows ‘battle without limits’ against Israel

BEIRUT, LEBANON (CNN) — An Israeli airstrike reduces a nine-story apartment building in Beirut’s southern suburb to a large mound of rubble. A man covered in dust flails lifelessly in the arms of a rescuer. A corpse in a body bag is whizzed past parked ambulances on the back of a quad bike.

Suspicion pierces through the catastrophic aftermath of the attack. Plainclothes Hezbollah members snatch the phones of people snapping photos, demanding they be deleted. “Get the cell phones out of here!” screams one woman.

It was Iran-backed Hezbollah’s darkest hour. A meeting that gathered commanders of the group’s elite Radwan force in the basement of a residential building had been struck down by Israeli warplanes.

At least 45 people, including women and children, were killed, along with 16 Hezbollah militants, including the Radwan force leader Ibrahim Aqil and senior commander Ahmad Wehbe.

Just two days earlier, hundreds of walkie-talkies belonging to the Lebanese militant group’s members detonated in a single minute. A day before that, thousands of exploding Hezbollah pagers maimed hundreds of people. Overall, at least 80 people have been killed in attacks since Tuesday. Most were Hezbollah operatives, but the casualties also include women and children.

Now, one of the world’s largest non-state fighting forces is reeling from the biggest-ever hit to its military structure, as well as the most visible Israeli infiltration of its ranks and communications infrastructure in its more than 40-year history. The internal breach enabled the successive blows this week and sowed panic within Hezbollah, according to Lebanese security sources.

In a Saturday news conference, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi gave an impassioned speech, declaring that the country was in the throes of an Israeli “breach” and vowing to ramp up the monitoring of “foreigners, hotels and Syrian camps.”

Israel’s firepower had pursued Hezbollah to its lair, attacking rank-and-file and military leadership alike.

Weakened militarily and stripped of its cloak of secrecy, Hezbollah has arrived at the most delicate phase of its decades-long fight against Israel. It hoped that a low-level fight on the border on behalf of the Palestinians would prop up Hamas’ position in the negotiations, but a ceasefire in Gaza seems more elusive than ever before. Now its limited confrontation with Israel has exacted a seemingly unlimited price from the militant group.

Yet the compulsion to lash out has rarely been greater, bringing the region even closer to the brink of a catastrophic war.

In its most high-level statement since the Israeli airstrike on Friday, Hezbollah’s second in command Naim Qassem declared “a new chapter” in the confrontations which he called “a battle without limits.”

Hezbollah’s retaliation in the early hours of Sunday appears to be its most forceful attack since confrontations at the Israel-Lebanon border began last October. The group said it targeted the Ramat David airbase in southeast Haifa, and the Rafael military industries site, north of Haifa. The Israeli military did not respond to questions about whether the site was impacted but officials confirmed direct hits nearby.

This was one of the deepest hits by Hezbollah since the last all-out war between Lebanon and Israel in 2006. The group also said it used new missiles it calls Fadi-1 and Fadi-2, believed to be medium-range rockets. If confirmed, this would mark one of the first time Hezbollah has fired weapons outside of its short-range arsenal.

The group will hope to have restored some of its deterrence power, and to force an end to Israel’s “new chapter” in its fight against Hezbollah.

What is certain is that there are new unwritten rules of engagement between Hezbollah and Israel. Until a few months ago, an Israeli strike in Beirut was believed likely to provoke a Hezbollah retaliation in a major Israeli city. After Israel killed a Hamas leader in southern Beirut in January, that turned out not to be true. Since then, Israel has attacked Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital five times.

Hours before the Israeli airstrike on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the strikes on the wireless devices “unprecedented and severe.” The group had lost this battle, he seemed to say, but not the war.

Hezbollah’s supporters are trying to put on a brave face. “War is a boxing match. One day you win, another day you lose,” said Hussein, attending the funeral of three Hezbollah fighters slain in Friday’s strike.

“We are strong in our faith … We are all ready to spill blood for Nasrallah.”

Ben Wedeman, Sarah Sirgany and Charbel Mallo contributed reporting.