NEW YORK, September 24. /TASS/. Israel pushed the Hezbollah movement "20 years backwards" in the past week, CNN reported, citing sources.

"They’ve probably been taken 20 years backwards," an official said of the combined effects of Israel’s operations against Hezbollah, according to the media outlet.

Officials believe that Israel has "significantly weakened" the movement by killing several senior commanders and impacting Hezbollah’s command and control structure.

They also point out that the biggest concern "is that Iran, which is a key backer of Hezbollah, will get involved." "Tehran has not intervened yet, but they will if they believe they are about to lose their most powerful proxy force," CNN writes, citing one of the officials.

CNN reported earlier that the large-scale operation to blow up communication devices in Lebanon, attributed to Israel, had been the biggest blow to Hezbollah’s military structure.

Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on September 21 that the country’s air force had hit some 400 Hezbollah launchers in southern Lebanon.

Multiple explosions of communication devices occurred in Lebanon on September 17 and 18. On the first day, a large number of pagers blew up almost simultaneously in various regions of the country. According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 12 people, including two children, were killed, and over 2,000 more suffered injuries. On the following day, a new wave of blasts swept across Lebanon. This time, walkie-talkies, phones, fingerprint scanners, as well as devices operating on solar and lithium-ion batteries exploded. At least 25 were killed and 608 were injured in the attack.

Hezbollah blamed the explosions on Israel, with the movement’s leader Hassan Nasrallah stating that it was in fact a declaration of war. The Israeli authorities did not openly comment on what happened but announced increased military operations in the north. Later, the Israeli Air Force started to carry out massive strikes on the border areas in southern Lebanon; on September 20, aircraft attacked targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing 16 Hezbollah military commanders.