In the past 14 months, Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah is believed to have suffered as many as 10 times the casualties as it did during the month-long 2006 Second Lebanon War.
According to an assessment by Israel’s Channel 12 News and Institute for National Security Studies, the Israeli military believes that approximately 3,000 terrorists were killed in Lebanon, including at least 11 brigade-level commanders, 37 battalion commanders and 46 company commanders.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and noncombatants, reports 3,823 killed and 15,895 injured during the conflict.
A source familiar with Hezbollah’s operations told Reuters on Thursday that as many as 4,000 terrorists may have been killed, the vast majority of them since September, when Jerusalem stepped up its offensive in Lebanon after adding the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in the north to its official war goals.
The figure is over 10 times the number of Hezbollah members killed during the 2006 war.
Hezbollah’s chain of command was also decimated, as highlighted by the Sept. 27 assassination of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Other high-ranking officials killed include Hashem Safi al-Din, Nasrallah’s successor; Radwan Force commanders Ibrahim Aqil and Wisam al-Tuwail; Ali Karaki, commander of the Southern Front; and Fuad Shukr, the terror group’s chief of staff.
Furthermore, some 80% of Hezbollah’s stockpile of 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and 70% of its drone arsenal were destroyed during the war, according to the Channel 12/INSS assessment.
Hezbollah launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terror organization’s massacre in southern Israel.
Nearly 70,000 residents of northern Israel have been internally displaced due to the cross-border attacks from Lebanon. During “Operation Northern Arrows,” the Israeli military’s name for the northern war, 45 Israeli civilians and 79 IDF soldiers were killed, according to the most recent data from the Alma Research and Education Center, which monitors the northern fronts.
Israeli authorities estimate property damage to exceed $273 million, according to Reuters, while Channel 12 and INSS reported that according to World Bank estimates, Lebanon suffered $8.5 billion in damages and economic losses during the war—$3.4 billion in physical infrastructure damage and $5.1 billion economic losses.
An analysis of satellite data by The Washington Post in early November revealed that nearly a quarter of all buildings in 25 Lebanese towns and villages near the Israeli border were damaged or destroyed. At least 5,868 buildings were affected, with almost half located in the heavily impacted areas of Aita al-Shaab and Kafr Kila. Approximately 80% of the damage occurred after Oct. 2, 2024, coinciding with Israel’s ground offensive.
The war displaced 1.2 million people in Lebanon, primarily from Southern Lebanon and the Dahieh district south of Beirut. Many sought refuge in Christian strongholds like Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
(JNS)