Israeli assaults on Hezbollah units sign shift to nonkinetic warfare

Under international criticism for high civilian casualties during military operations against Hamas, the Israeli military is shifting to more targeted, nonkinetic warfare, according to a military affairs analyst.

Israeli military operations in Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack have decimated the Palestinian militant group’s forces. But the operations also reportedly inflicted a large number of civilian casualties, prompting international criticism, including complaints from the Biden administration.

The use of covert action against Hezbollah in Lebanon signals a new phase of the conflict through the greater use of hybrid intelligence and military operations, the analyst said speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hezbollah was hit with a large-scale military intelligence operation that involved detonating thousands of electronic pagers used by the terrorist group in a dramatic attack on Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria.

Reports indicate at least 12 people were killed and some 3,000 wounded by exploding pagers used by Hezbollah. The devices reportedly were sabotaged by the inclusion of small amounts of explosives and a detonator prior to delivery from a manufacturer in Hungary, news reports from Lebanon said.

Among the casualties were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s shock troops.

The pager attack, which Israel’s government has not commented on, was followed on Wednesday by the similar explosions of sabotaged Hezbollah hand-held communications devices. The walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon’s south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters reported.

The suspected Israeli operation against Hezbollah reflects the policies of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is said to favor more covert and nonkinetic warfare against the Jewish state’s enemies.

Mr. Gallant has clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is said to favor more conventional military operations.

Mr. Netanyahu is considering dismissing Mr. Gallant, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The exploding communications device operations followed months of Hezbollah missile and drone strikes against Israel in support of Hamas, the group’s Palestinian ally. Israel also said it had thwarted a planned Hezbollah attack on a senior Israeli official.

The Hezbollah missile attacks have prompted Israeli airstrikes into Lebanon in response and raising the prospect of a wider regional conflict.

The sabotage operation required both sophisticated intelligence, such as identifying the procurement of the devices and intercepting them before delivery, as well as military expertise — planting the explosive and detonating the devices nearly simultaneously.

The defense source said the indications suggest the explosive device represents a new style of warfare using attacks with near zero forensics in determining the origin.

“Nobody can confirm or deny the likelihood of a stealthy nonkinetic attack on pagers and cellphones but to simply imagine that form of attack is pure science fiction would be a very dangerous and naive conclusion,” the source said.

“Also, one needs to seriously consider whether future attacks among sophisticated nations will feature embedded nonkinetic probes mixed in with conventional systems.”