The assassination of Hezbollah's de facto Chief of Staff, Ali Tabatabaei, in the Dahiya quarter on Sunday has exposed a critical vacuum at the organization's highest echelons. With a significant portion of its senior military command eliminated, Hezbollah's operational leadership has been dramatically thinned, relying on a sparse core of veterans to maintain its military structure.
The once broad and complex command structure has been reduced to a handful of key figures, leaving a leadership vacuum that the remaining commanders are struggling to fill.
The Remaining Senior Figures
Only a few commanders remain from the "old guard" who guided the organization’s military efforts:
- Mohammad Haydar: Considered the most central figure remaining from the old guard and a member of the "Jihad Council." Haydar is a protégé of Iran, boasting extensive operational and organizational experience and a deep understanding of the former leadership's methods. He is seen as the senior figure left standing, having been a key architect, alongside Tabatabaei, of Hezbollah’s recent rearmament efforts. Haydar notably survived an assassination attempt in Dahiya about a year ago.
- Talal Hamiyah: Known as the commander of Unit 910, Hezbollah’s external operations unit responsible for terrorist attacks abroad. Hamiyah grew up alongside Imad Mughniyeh and served as his deputy until Mughniyeh's assassination in 2008. Following the 1994 attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Hamiyah was reportedly recorded expressing joy over the success of "our project in Argentina." The U.S. State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to his capture in 2017.
- Haj Khalil Harb: A senior figure who commanded Unit 1800 and Unit 3800, the latter focusing on recruiting Palestinians, establishing terror infrastructure, and executing attacks inside Israel. Harb served as a close advisor to Hassan Nasrallah, who was eliminated in September 2024. The U.S. designated him as a global terrorist in 2013, offering a reward of up to $5 million for information.
- Khader Youssef Nader Ez-Eldine (Khader Ez-Eldine): Commands Hezbollah's security unit, which functions as a secret police force. This unit is responsible for counter-espionage against Hezbollah, securing the terrorist organization's activities, and monitoring all political, civilian, military, and foreign entities in Lebanon, including journalists and political opponents.
The continuous targeted eliminations have drastically reduced the operational leadership, leaving a thin command structure struggling to fill the vacuum.
The Reason for the Assassination
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the primary reason for Tabatabaei’s elimination was his crucial role as the "brain behind the rearmament" effort aimed at restoring the organization’s full operational capability following the last war.
Tabatabaei led the entire rearmament campaign, which included:
- Smuggling weapons from Syria.
- Restoring manufacturing facilities in Lebanon.
- Training new recruits and establishing small, independent fighting cells in southern Lebanon designed to survive future attacks.
Arab and Israeli sources told the paper that Tabatabaei had successfully implemented a mechanism to rapidly replace killed field commanders, reportedly restoring most of the over 2,500 fighters lost in the war. Israel consequently viewed him as the "head of the effort" to rebuild the military force and a high-value target aimed at disrupting the rearmament process and increasing pressure on Beirut. The elimination, codenamed "Black Friday," was executed by an F-15 fighter jet and was intended as a message to the terrorist organization to comply with international demands for disarmament.
