Israel has long seen Hezbollah, with thousands of trained fighters and a deep arsenal of rockets and other weapons, as the most formidable foe on its borders. And Israeli officials say Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, in particular, poses a major threat.
Israel claimed that it killed the force’s de facto commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, in a strike on a building in the Dahiya area of southern Beirut on Friday.
Hezbollah began firing missiles and drones at Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, and Israel has struck across Lebanon in response, prompting months of conflict that have displaced over 150,000 people in both countries. The strike on Friday deepened fears that the cross-border conflict could broaden into a larger regional conflict alongside the war in Gaza.
Why does Israel call the Radwan unit a threat?
Radwan has taken the lead in Hezbollah’s long-running conflict with Israel, and in the cross-border attacks that have escalated since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel set off the war in Gaza. Israeli military analysts say that Radwan has adopted the mission of conquering the northern Israeli region of Galilee.
Hezbollah and Hamas share a patron in Iran. If Iran and its proxies were to make a serious effort to broaden the war, the Israel-Lebanon border would be the likeliest place to do it.
“The Radwan force is dedicated to duplicating what happened on Oct. 7 in the south of Israel in the north,” Tamir Hayman, a retired general who led Israeli military intelligence until 2021, said in an interview in January, after a strike in southern Lebanon killed a commander that Lebanese officials tied to the Radwan force. “For that exact reason, it’s unacceptable for Israel to allow its fighters to remain in the border area.”
In the spring of 2023, the Radwan force took part in a rare example of public military exercises by Hezbollah, displaying an expansive military arsenal and simulating an infiltration into Israeli territory. Slick propaganda videos produced by Hezbollah have showcased the group’s small unit tactics and live-fire drills, interspersed with threats to Israel.
Why are we hearing more about the Radwan unit now?
The Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas also led to intensified strikes and retaliations between Hezbollah and Israel, forcing tens of thousands of people on each side of the border to evacuate.
In northern Israel, officials and residents have piled pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect them from Hezbollah and make it safe to return home.
What Israel has treated as a manageable threat, it now describes as something more serious. Israeli leaders have repeatedly cited the Radwan unit by name, and, as far back as last December, Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, told Israeli media that the country can no longer accept Radwan “sitting on the border.”
Where did the Radwan force come from?
The origins and makeup of the unit are murky.
The group took its name from the nom de guerre of its former leader, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in 2008. Under his command, the unit played a pivotal role in the abduction of Israeli soldiers in 2006 that led to the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.
The unit, along with other elements of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups, later took part in the battle against the Islamic State in Syria. But the fighting in the last three months has marked the Radwan force’s most active period against Israel since 2006.
The post What Is the Radwan Force, the Elite Hezbollah Unit Linked to Ibrahim Aqeel? appeared first on New York Times.
