Who were the seven senior Hezbollah officials killed last week?

BEIRUT — In just over a week, increased Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed seven senior commanders and officials from the powerful militant Hezbollah group, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The move sent Lebanon and much of the Middle East into shock as Israeli officials celebrated major military and intelligence breakthroughs.

A day after the Palestinian group’s surprise attack on southern Israel, Hezbollah opened a front in support of its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The recent attacks in Lebanon and the assassination of Nasrallah represent a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force is now trying to recover from serious setbacks after losing key members who had been part of Hezbollah since its founding in the early 1980s.

Chief among them was Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of airstrikes that leveled several buildings in southern Beirut. Others were less well-known to the outside world but were nonetheless crucial to Hezbollah’s operations.

Since 1992, Nasrallah had led the group through several wars with Israel and oversaw the party’s transformation into a powerful player in Lebanon. Hezbollah entered Lebanon’s political scene while also participating in regional conflicts that made it the strongest paramilitary force. After Syria’s uprising turned into a civil war in 2011, Hezbollah played a crucial role in keeping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power. Under Nasrallah, Hezbollah also helped develop the capabilities of other Iranian-backed armed groups in Iraq and Yemen.

Nasrallah is a divisive figure in Lebanon. His supporters praise him for ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, while his opponents denounce him for the group’s weapons stockpile and his unilateral decisions that they say serve an agenda for Tehran and its allies.

Kaouk, who was killed in an airstrike on Saturday, was deputy chairman of Hezbollah’s Central Council. He joined the militant group in its early days in the 1980s. Kaouk was also Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon from 1995 to 2010. He made several media appearances and gave speeches to supporters, including at funerals of killed Hezbollah fighters. He was considered a potential successor to Nasrallah.

Akil was a senior commander and led Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, which Israel is trying to push further away from its border with Lebanon. He was also a member of the highest military body, the Jihad Council, and was on the United States wanted list for years. According to the US State Department, Akil was part of the group that carried out the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and orchestrated the hostage-taking of German and American hostages.

Wehbe was commander of the Radwan forces and played a crucial role in the group’s development since its founding nearly two decades ago. He was killed along with Akil in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs that hit and leveled a building.

Karaki led Hezbollah’s southern front and played a key role in the ongoing conflict. The US described him as a significant figure in the militant group’s leadership. Little is known about Karaki, who was killed along with Nasrallah.

Surour was the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, which was used for the first time in this current conflict with Israel. Under his leadership, Hezbollah fired exploding drones and reconnaissance drones deep into Israel, penetrating its defense systems that had focused primarily on the group’s rockets and missiles.

Kobeissi led Hezbollah’s missile unit. According to the Israeli military, in 2000 Kobeissi plotted to kidnap and murder three Israeli soldiers on the northern border, whose bodies were returned four years later as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah.

Already in the months before the latest escalation of the war with Hezbollah, the Israeli military had targeted senior commanders, most notably Fuad Shukur, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in late July, hours before an explosion in Iran that was widely attributed to Israel group Ismail Haniyeh was killed. The United States accuses Fuad Shukur of orchestrating the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 American soldiers.

The leaders of key units in the south, Jawad Tawil, Taleb Abdullah and Mohammad Nasser, who became key members of Hezbollah’s military activities over several decades, were all assassinated.

Naim Kassem, Nasrallah’s deputy, is the organization’s most senior member. Kassem has been deputy leader of Hezbollah since 1991 and is one of its founding members. On several occasions, local news channels quickly assumed that an Israeli attack in southern Beirut may have targeted Kassem.

Kassem is the only top official from the militant group who has conducted interviews with local and international media in the ongoing conflict.

The deputy leader appears to be involved in various aspects of the militant group, both in important political and security matters, but also in matters related to Hezbollah’s theocratic and charitable initiatives for Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim community.

Meanwhile, Hashim Safieddine, who heads Hezbollah’s Central Council, is considered Nasrallah’s successor. Safieddine is a cousin of the late Hezbollah leader, and his son is married to the daughter of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. Like Nasrallah, Safieddine joined Hezbollah early on and also wears a black turban.

Talal Hamieh and Abu Ali Reda are the two remaining top Hezbollah commanders who are still alive and appear to be in the Israeli military’s crosshairs.

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Jeffery reported from Jerusalem.