Iran Deploys Officers to Rebuild Hezbollah Structure

BEIRUT, March 21 — Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps dispatched officers to Lebanon following a ceasefire in November 2024 to rebuild Hezbollah's battered military command structure after severe losses inflicted by Israel during that year's conflict, according to two individuals familiar with the activities.

The effort marked the first major overhaul of Hezbollah's command since the Shiite Muslim group's founding in 1982 with Iranian support. It came in response to the deaths of leader Hassan Nasrallah and numerous top commanders in Israeli strikes, which had exposed vulnerabilities in the organization's hierarchy due to penetrations by Israeli intelligence. The Iranian officers filled leadership gaps, retrained fighters, oversaw rearmament and restructured the group into a more decentralized system of small, isolated units to enhance operational secrecy.

This reconstruction enabled Hezbollah to join the escalating regional war on March 2, aligning with Iran's interests after attacks on Tehran by the United States and Israel. Since entering the fray, Hezbollah has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel, triggering an Israeli air and ground offensive that has killed more than...