northern front Hezbollah on the brink? Battalion commander surrenders to IDF, gives up valuable intel on military sites

The IDF announced on Tuesday that Israeli soldiers captured a battalion-level commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force during a raid two weeks ago, marking the first incident of its kind since the war began in Lebanon and Gaza.

The commander, Hassan Akil Jawad, led the Ayta al-Sha’ab district and was the first commander of his rank to be captured alive by Israeli forces.

The fact that Jawad and several of his soldiers surrendered to IDF troops makes the incident even more significant and gives credence to recent media reports of the cratering morale among Hezbollah’s troops that may also have led to the recent breakthrough in the ceasefire talks.

Jawad was captured during a raid by IDF Golani Brigade troops, who acted on intelligence that led them to a shaft inside a military headquarters, where they found the commander along with several soldiers, who surrendered.

The suspects were arrested and interrogated by field investigators from Unit 504 and then taken to the unit's detention facility for further interrogation in Israel.

During the interrogations, the terrorists gave up detailed information about the location of numerous Hezbollah sites in the Ayta al-Sha’ab area, which the IDF later published on a map.

לוחמי גולני עצרו את מפקד מרחב עייתא א-שעב של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה ומחבלים נוספים מ'כוח רדואן'. חקירתם על-ידי יחידה 504 הובילה לאיתור והשמדת מטרות טרור רבות במרחב
לכל הפרטים והתיעודים>>https://t.co/5prFinc2b0 pic.twitter.com/ZbGcNaOOsK

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 29, 2024

“The arrest of such a senior field commander is extremely unusual - as I believe, among Hamas in Gaza, after a year of war, not a single Hamas battalion commander was taken prisoner,” said Army Radio’s military correspondent, Doron Kadosh.

“This has a very significant psychological effect and the goal is to break the spirit and motivation of other Hezbollah terrorists, and to provoke internal criticism of Hezbollah among its base – even the senior commanders surrender to the IDF and do not fight.”

“And not just the surrender, but also the delivery of critical information to the enemy: in an extremely unusual move, the IDF is publishing very sensitive details of all the intelligence information. This has not happened in any terrorist investigation event to date,” he added.

The military reported that over 100 terrorist targets were struck by airstrikes in the past day, including the launcher used in the rocket attack on Ma’alot Tarshiha, which killed a civilian earlier on Tuesday.

Troops under the command of the 146th Division located caches of weapons during raids of dozens of targets, including anti-tank missile launch positions and military buildings.

⭕️DISMANTLED: 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐧 of explosives in underground terrorist infrastructure located in southern Lebanon.

Here is a closer look at an underground command center reaching a depth of approx. 8 meters below ground: pic.twitter.com/tPW8IaiSna

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 29, 2024

The 2nd Carmeli Brigade, which lost four soldiers in an ambush last Wednesday, located another massive staging area containing huge stockpiles of weapons and equipment that was prepared for the Radwan Force’s planned invasion of northern Israel.

The compound, located just hundreds of meters from the border and eight meters underground in a civilian area, included headquarters containing half a ton of explosives and numerous other weapons. It was later destroyed by the brigade.

Soldiers of the 91st Division also continued to destroy shafts, locate weapons and eliminate terrorists. During the fighting, they discovered anti-aircraft missiles, maps that include firing lines for the territory of Israel, and loaded launchers aimed at Israeli towns.