The New York Times reported today, Saturday, September 28, 2017, quoting 3 Israeli officials, that Tel Aviv had known about the location of Hassan Nasrallah for months.
The officials said Israel decided to strike because it believed it had only a short window of opportunity before the Hezbollah leader disappeared to a different location.
Two officials said more than 80 bombs were dropped over several minutes to kill him, but they did not confirm the weight or type of bombs.
The journalist said, according to officials based on intelligence information they obtained from inside Lebanon, that Hezbollah elements found Nasrallah’s body and identified him early Saturday morning, along with Ali Karaki, one of the party’s senior leaders.
Two officials indicated that the operation had been planned since last week, when Israeli leaders spoke with their American counterparts about the possibility of a ceasefire in Lebanon, and before Netanyahu left to deliver a speech at the United Nations.
Officials said that Hashem Safieddine, Hassan Nasrallah’s cousin and a key player in the party’s political and social work, was one of the few remaining Hezbollah leaders who were not present at the strike site.