IDF Strike Decapitates Leadership of a Planned Hezbollah ‘Oct. 7’ Attack on Israel
Sept. 21—In a Sept. 20 airstrike in Beirut Lebanon, Israel claims to have killed a Hezbollah senior commander, as well as several other top commanders of a Hezbollah unit that was planning a cross-border attack on Israel in commemoration of Hamas’ Oct. 7 bloody massacre and hostage taking attack. Intelligence sources familiar with the plans for the Hezbollah attack say that it was intended to “kill thousands of Israeli civilians, both Jews and Arabs, and to take hostages. It was all set and ready to go. The strike today [Sept. 20] decapitated the leadership of this attack,” a source reported.
The source said that Israeli intelligence agents were alerted to the planned attack by sources inside the Hezbollah leadership. The proposed bloody slaughter of civilians was to be called an “act of solidarity with Hamas and Gaza.” It is not clear whether it was coordinated with any planned actions by Hamas and its chief Yahya Sinwar. This and other sources say that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah may not have approved the attack, but his opposition was overridden by other senior commanders, including the operations chief Ibrahim Aqil, who was slain in the attack.
Hezbollah said Sept. 21 that Ahmed Wahbi, a top commander who oversaw the elite Radwan Force's military operations during the Gaza war until early 2024, was also killed by Friday's Israeli strike on Beirut. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at least 16 Hezbollah members, including senior Radwan Force members, were killed in the strike According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 37 people were killed – including at least three children and seven women – in the Israeli strike in Beirut and 66 wounded. Hezbollah-aligned Transportation Minister Ali Hamieh told reporters after the strike that "The Israeli enemy is taking the region to war."
In a statement issued Sept. 20, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and the top leadership of the group’s operations array and elite Radwan Force were killed in the Israeli airstrike. “They gathered underground, under a residential building, in the heart of the Dahiyeh [a southern suburb of Beirut], while using civilians as a human shield. They met to coordinate terror activities against Israeli civilians,” reported Times of Israel..
The IDF claimed that Aqil and the other commanders killed with him were planning the Oct. 7-style attack into northern Israel to be called “The Plan To Conquer the Galilee.” Hagari said, “Hezbollah intended to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, and murder and kidnap Israeli citizens—similar to what Hamas did on Oct. 7.”
IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi said, “The Hezbollah commanders we eliminated today had been planning an ‘October 7’ on the northern border for years. We reached them and we will reach anyone who threatens the security of the citizens of the State of Israel.”
“While some very stupid people are trying to play this as an Israeli escalation of the conflict in the North,” a source stated, “this is an action that might prevent the explosion of an uncontrolled war on that front, which the proposed attack would have triggered, to the delight of Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu]. The Israeli military and security services had sufficient information prior to the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre to have taken steps to stop it. They did not act on clear intelligence about the attack, obtained from operatives inside the Hamas leadership. They had the freaking plans, in detail, for more than a year. Bibi was briefed and did nothing. He let the attack proceed.
“This time, they did not wait for Bibi to tell them to go,” said the source. “The security services provided the necessary information about this planning meeting, the precise timing, and location. Operatives on the scene confirmed, and the IDF struck with precision, delivering a serious blow to Hezbollah. That blowhard, bastard Netanyahu has not said anything yet [this report was filed Sept. 20] about what happened. That leads me to believe that he was not all that involved, and maybe not involved at all. We will see what he says. But there was no way that the IDF and the security services were going to be caught with their pants down again in the eyes of the Israeli public and let a planned assault take place because the murderous fool who is still somehow Prime Minister wanted it.
“This may not stop a war in the North,” said the source, “but it gives people who want to stop it, like [CIA Director and U.S. chief ceasefire negotiator William] Burns some time to try.” These and other sources say that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah would seek a negotiated settlement if somehow a peace deal in Gaza could be worked out.
