Atwan’s analysis on Hezbollah commander assassination: Painful, imminent response coming

Pars Today – The Arab world analyst, referring to the assassination of a prominent Hezbollah commander by the Israeli regime, spoke of a certain, imminent, and painful reaction to this terrorist act by Tel Aviv.

Palestinian analyst Abdul Bari Atwan, in an analysis published on Rai Al-Youm on Tuesday, wrote that it was not surprising to them that Israeli aircraft, flying day and night over Beirut, targeted Haitham Ali al-Tabatabai, a senior Hezbollah commander, on the orders of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Israeli regime, and in coordination with the U.S. President and intelligence services.

Atwan added that these provocative and showy Israeli attacks reflect the regime’s fear of the improving military situation and the success of young Hezbollah commanders in organizing internal readiness for the major battle, which will certainly occur soon.

The Rai Al-Youm editor emphasized that Hezbollah’s military leadership, operating with complete silence and cunning, will determine the time and place of its response to the Israeli attack.

He added that Netanyahu is trying to drag Hezbollah into an immediate response in order to justify a large-scale ground, air, and naval attack against Lebanon, to blame Hezbollah, and to strike before the group reaches full readiness. However, this move will not succeed, as Hezbollah will wait until it reaches peak preparedness and the right moment arrives for a seismic response.

The analyst wrote that the assassination of al-Tabatabai and the successive Israeli attacks—which have exceeded seven thousand ceasefire violations in just one year—demonstrate the correctness and rationale of Hezbollah and its leaders’ stance against disarmament by the Lebanese government or others under U.S. and Israeli pressure. It also highlights the flaws in the view that the state should have a monopoly on weapons, as its sole focus has been appeasing American envoys and implementing their directives.

Atwan stated: If Hezbollah is supposedly finished militarily, then what is the reason for Israel’s intensified attacks?

He continued: These Israeli attacks and assassinations against Hezbollah reveal the failure of last November’s assaults on Lebanon and show that Hezbollah has grown even stronger than before. Israel assassinated the Secretary-General and senior commanders of Hezbollah and committed the pager bombing crime, which resulted in nearly four thousand martyrs and wounded; yet Hezbollah did not collapse.

The assassination of al-Tabatabai will not cause Hezbollah’s downfall. Hezbollah is an organization that produces commanders—every time one commander is martyred, another takes up the banner and continues the sacred path of resistance.

Atwan further wrote: The response to this assassination by Hezbollah will be certain, imminent, and painful. We must emphasize a reality that many within the occupying regime, as well as Arab and Islamic countries aligned with it, have forgotten: the only force that defeated Israel twice in Lebanon and forced its army into a humiliating retreat was the Lebanese resistance—and this will happen a third time as well.

On the evening of Sunday, November 23, 2025, the Israeli regime carried out an airstrike on a residential apartment on Al-Areesh Street in the Al-Dahieh area, south of Beirut, causing extensive destruction. Haitham Ali al-Tabatabai was martyred in this attack.