The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate has identified the new Hezbollah commander on the Syrian Golan Heights, Munir Ali Naim Shaiti, as defense analysts warn that Israel could be heading for a new war with Hezbollah.
The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday that Shaiti, also known as Haj Hasham, mainly operates out of Syria, where he spearheads the terrorist organization’s southern front in support of the Assad regime. According to intelligence sources, he receives his orders directly from Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
Shaiti is also a close associate of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. He served as deputy chief of Hezbollah’s Bader Brigades, which handles terrorist operations north of the Litani River in Lebanon, before he was appointed head of Hezbollah’s operations in Syria in June 2016.
During the Second Lebanon War, Shaiti led a combat force against the IDF and in 2002, he ordered the shooting attack at Kibbutz Matzuva, which led to the deaths of six Israeli civilians.
According to Aymenn Tamimi, research fellow at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum, Israeli intelligence on Shaiti is probably solid, although “it’s hard to verify as Hezbollah tends not to say much about where exactly its commanders are stationed.”
He further noted that Hezbollah is playing the long game in Syria, working with local affiliates to cement its power even after the civil war comes to an end. “We are talking of a long-term presence in those border areas and having local Syrian affiliates as a way to get around any meaningful insistence of no Iranian-backed [non-Syrian] militias on the border,” Tamimi explained.
The strategic importance of the Golan Heights and the deep Iranian entrenchment there has left Israel on high alert. The IDF is said to have carried out hundreds of strikes against Hezbollah operatives, weapons convoys, and infrastructure in Syria since January 2013. Israel has also targeted senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders such as Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of the late Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, and Samir Kuntar, who previously served as Hezbollah’s commander on the Golan Heights.
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