Less than a month after Israel killed former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese armed group named Sheikh Naim Qassem as its new head.

The 71-year-old Shiite Muslim cleric, who has been a senior figure in the Iran-backed organization for more than 30 years, fills what many observers have called a power vacuum.

Since June of this year, Reuters and AP report that Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed at least 10 senior Hezbollah leaders, including Hashem Safieddine, who was Nasrallah’s heir apparent.

These attacks have dealt Hezbollah the most severe blow since its formation in the early 1980s. But although Israel’s assassination campaign has made it difficult for Hezbollah to function, the group is far from destroyed.

Here’s a look at how Hezbollah is currently organized and which key players remain as its new leader vows to continue fighting Israel.

How is Hezbollah organized?

Based in Beirut, Hezbollah is both an armed group and a political party that has held seats in Lebanon’s parliament since 1992.

It is organized in a hierarchical structure under a seven-member Shura Council, which is the body of the group. supreme decision-making body.

There are five subordinate bodies reporting to the Shura Council and supervise Hezbollah affairs in various areas:

1. He Executive Council oversees Hezbollah’s administrative operations, including its social services, finance and media unit;
2. he Jihad Council oversees Hezbollah’s military operations, including its terrorist activities and weapons arsenal;
3. he Judicial Council is a private judicial system that oversees internal disputes and enforces Islamic law;
4. he Parliamentary Council oversees the group’s parliamentary performance;
5. and the Political Council oversees the group’s political strategies and alliances.

This structure allows Hezbollah to essentially function as “a state within a state” in the areas under its control, maintaining a significant presence in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.

Like the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia designates all Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on the basis that he participates directly or indirectly in terrorist acts.

While the European Union only considers Hezbollah’s military arm a terrorist group, Australia does not make this distinction because “its various functional councils, including the Military Council (Jihad), work together holistically.”

Hezbollah also operates around the world.according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)and members and financiers have been arrested or detained on almost every continent.

How many members do you have around the world?

Estimates on Hezbollah’s membership are approximate and its actual combat strength is difficult to assess amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.

According to the Australian National Securitythe group has “tens of thousands” of members and followers around the world.

Its military wing, in particular, is believed to have “up to 50,000 full-time and reserve fighters”. This figure is in line with the CIA’s estimate for 2024.

In 2021, Hezbollah claimed it had more than 100,000 fighters, but this figure was difficult to verify because the group largely keeps its operations secret.

The Israeli army estimates it has killed around 1,500 Hezbollah members since the start of the conflict last year.

“There is great damage, an entire chain of command is being eliminated, Hezbollah is hiding its fatalities, hiding its dead commanders,” Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said on October 19.

“We estimate that we are 1,500 Hezbollah agents killed, and our estimates are conservative. I assume there are more that we don’t know about.”

So which Hezbollah leaders were killed?

After more than a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, At least 10 of Hezbollah’s most senior members have been killed., according to Reuters and AP.

They were anyone key decision makers who were part of the Hezbollah councils or military commanders who supervised operations on the battlefield.

Scroll through the timeline below to learn more about each leader killed by Israel’s military in recent months:

And which leaders are still alive?

Sheikh Qassem He is one of the last leaders standing, although Israel’s Defense Minister has warned that “not for long.”

The head of the group’s Political Council, Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyedand the head of the Hezbollah bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Mohamed RaadHe also remains in charge.

Raised in Beirut, although his family was from southern Lebanon, Qassem was appointed deputy secretary general of Hezbollah in 1991.

He appears to have been involved in both high-level political and security matters, as well as matters related to Hezbollah’s theocratic and charitable initiatives in Lebanon.

He has also been one of the most outspoken Hezbollah officials, speaking often at rallies and in interviews. After Nasrallah’s assassination last month, he was the first member of Hezbollah’s top leadership to make televised comments.

Speaking on September 30, Qassem said Hezbollah would choose a successor to its slain secretary-general “as soon as possible” and would continue fighting Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

“What we are doing is the minimum… We know the battle can be long,” he said in a 19-minute speech.

But less than a week after it was confirmed that Safieddine, Nasrallah’s presumed successor, had also been killed in an Israeli strike, Qassem now finds himself elected to the top job.

the secretary general He presides over the other members of the Shura Council, the group’s governing body.

There are normally seven members on this council, including the head of Hezbollah and the deputy head. But now it appears that Qassem is leading a shrinking group.

What’s in Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal?

Before Hezbollah’s latest conflict with Israel, the CIA estimate the group had “up to 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types and ranges”.

Since the intensification of Israeli airstrikes in late September, Israel claims to have destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets mainly in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israeli officials said the fact that Hezbollah has been firing an average of up to 200 missiles and rockets each day – instead of the thousands they expected – is a sign of significant weakening.

Estimates of the magnitude of Hezbollah’s losses have varied: one Western diplomat said before Nasrallah’s assassination that up to 25 percent of the group’s missile capacity had been lost.

Reuters previously reported that Iran had offered to resupply its ally Hezbollah, but faced challenges on supply routes.

Last week, a Hezbollah field commander and another source close to the group told Reuters that Hezbollah had decided not to use its most powerful rockets – including precision-guided missiles – to keep something in reserve for a long war.

A third source familiar with Hezbollah operations told Reuters that the group had not attacked Israeli cities, such as Tel Aviv, with its most powerful weapons because such a move would give Israel a reason to hit Lebanon even harder.