Radwan Force

Radwan Force is Hezbollah's elite special operations unit, formed in the late 1990s and named after Imad Mughniyeh's nom de guerre "Haj Radwan". Based in southern Lebanon, it specialises in cross-border raids, anti-armour ambushes, and tunnel warfare, trained to penetrate Israeli defences along the northern border. Naim Qassem confirmed on Quds Day that 30,000 Hezbollah fighters are committed, with Radwan units deployed in the south.

The unit has sustained severe command losses across the current conflict. The IDF killed Radwan Force commander Abu Khalil Barji in an airstrike on Majdal Selm in southern Lebanon in March 2026. A Radwan command post was subsequently destroyed in the IDF's strike on the Al-Amana fuel network. On 7 May 2026, the IDF struck Dahiyeh, the southern Beirut suburb, killing Barji's successor Ahmed Ali Balout — the second Radwan commander killed within six weeks and the first IDF strike on the Lebanese capital since the Trump ceasefire of 16 April.

Despite repeated commander-level strikes, Radwan Force continues to function: the open question is whether Israel's decapitation strategy can degrade an organisation that has survived similar losses since 2006, or whether the unit's cell structure allows it to absorb attrition and reconstitute faster than the IDF can strike.