Sources knowledgable on field developments in the south told Annahar that the list of individuals targeted by Israeli drones over the past three weeks is almost devoid of military cadre names holding field responsibilities.

According to the same account, the largest number of those killed in assassination operations are local Hezbollah coordinators linking villages and towns, a mid-level organizational role the party created years ago. Their duties place them between regional leadership and the party’s grassroots base in towns and villages.

Many of these individuals previously underwent intense training and political questioning under pressure, as they often represent the party’s public face. Their task is to maintain organizational discipline and manage services and welfare projects.

According to preliminary statistics, Israel has succeeded over the past ten days in killing about five of these figures, the latest being the local coordinator of the town of Yanouh, Ahmad Salameh, and the local coordinator of the town of Arzoun, Muhammad al-Husseini, following strikes on figures from Bint Jbeil and Jmaijmeh.

The loss of these individuals is an exceptional blow to the party as it seeks to reconstitute at the grassroots level. Israel's focus on this tranche means one of two things.

The first possibility is that the Israeli military's target bank is close to exhausted of the information they had stockpiled prior to October 7th, 2023. During the war, Israel relied on this cache of information to eliminate 80 percent of Hezbollah's military leadership, stretching from the southern suburbs of Beirut to local cadres throughout the south. Haytham Ali Tabatabai, whom Israel assassinated last summer, was the last senior commander the party lost. He was regarded as the chief of staff of the party’s military wing and one of four remaining senior leaders.

The second possibility is that Tel Aviv is entering a new phase, intensifying daily pressure on the party’s social base. Targeting civilian cadres renders internal movement dangerous and limits Hezbollah initiative, cohesion, and reach, within its own environment Recent attacks have targeted mosque imams, media figures, and educators, indicating that Israel has moved from the stage of destroying the party’s main military striking force to denying Hezbollah the environment that could one day supply it with new fighters.

Naturally, Israel is also intensifying its strikes on Hezbollah leadership and its social base to destabilize any ongoing initiatives at party reconstruction.

One of the party’s media officials offers an interpretation of this new Israeli military behavior based on the following points:

- Israel considers itself to be in a state of permanent war since 2023 and therefore will not grant these adversaries any truce.

- Israel believes it has impunity to “mow the grass,” a strategy of repeated, limited strikes aimed at preventing an adversary from rebuilding its capabilities. This approach was initially tried in the West Bank, where army units would repeatedly raid refugee camps and densely populated towns at short intervals to kill and arrest armed groups that factions had trained and deployed across different fronts.

If Hezbollah is to be believed, Israel is seeking to apply this strategy in south Lebanon as well.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Annahar.