The Israeli government notified the Biden administration of the operation to eliminate Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah 15 minutes before the Israeli Air Force dropped some 80 tons of bunker-buster bombs on the Hezbollah leader’s underground headquarters in Beirut, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
Yoav Gallant, who was the Israeli defense minister at the time of the operation, told Channel 13 that he had informed former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the phone about what was going to transpire.
“I told him, ‘We’re about to eliminate Nasrallah.’ He asks, ‘When?’ I reply, ‘a quarter of an hour,’” Gallant recalled.
Austin “was not pleased at all,” Gallant continued, “he told me [the killing] can lead to a regional war. I told him, ‘With all due respect, this man murdered thousands of Israelis and hundreds of Americans. I advise you to consider your answer carefully.”
Gallant was referring to the Hezbollah bombing of a US Marine Barracks at the Beirut Airport in 1983, which resulted in the deaths of 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers.
The former defense secretary then asked his Israeli counterpart if he was certain that Nasrallah was in the targeted location, Gallant recalled.
“We have a very, very high probability,” Gallant answered.
Before the phone call, former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog suggested updating the White House about the imminent assassination through former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the former diplomat told Channel 13.
But Sullivan would not return the calls, Herzog recalled.
“He was angry because he thought that we had deceived them,” Herzog continued.
From his perspective, he went on to say, Jerusalem let the Americans come out with a ceasefire initiative and make them “look like fools,” while all the while Israel was planning the elimination of Nasrallah.
“In the end, Gallant got a hold of Austin,” said Herzog.
On September 27, 2024, the Israeli Air Force conducted the massive airstrike targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters, built underground beneath residential buildings, in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of the Lebanese capital.
The operation to assassinate Nasrallah was named “New Order.”
The commander of Hezbollah’s terror activities in Southern Lebanon, Ali Karaki, was also killed in the attack. Karaki, the Iranian proxy’s No. 3 terrorist, had narrowly evaded an Israeli targeted killing attempt a week earlier.
The Iranian-backed Shi’ite militant group confirmed Nasrallah’s death several hours after the attack.
