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Middle East bombshell: Israel kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

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In a literal and figurative Middle East bombshell, Israel announced that it has killed Hassan Nasrallah, one of the leaders and founders of the terrorist group Hezbohllah. He was reportedly killed with an Iranian general in Lebanon. Reuters:

DUBAI, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday that its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed.

The group said in a statement it would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.

Israel said earlier on Saturday it had killed Nasrallah in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV started airing Koran verses after the announcement of Nasrallah’s death.

It would continue its battle against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defence of Lebanon and its steadfast and honourable people”.

Israel said earlier on Saturday it had killed Nasrallah in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV started airing Koran verses after the announcement of Nasrallah’s death.

President Joe Biden issued this statement:

Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.

The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.

The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.

Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.

Iran has vowed revenge: Yahoo News gives this summary of Nasrallah’s bloody career:

Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has led the group since 1992, after his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi was assassinated by Israel. The 64-year-old was seen as a charismatic leader, though he has rarely appeared in public since the 2006 Lebanon War due to fears of assassination attempts by Israel. In recent years, he gave speeches through a satellite link.

Nasrallah was “viewed as an extremist in the U.S. and much of the West, as well as in some oil-rich Gulf Arab countries,” AP reports. “He was also considered a pragmatist compared with the firebrand militants who dominated Hezbollah after its founding in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war.”

Nasrallah gave Hezbollah significant political influence in Lebanon over the years and was a key player in shifting powers of the Middle East. In 2000, Nasrallah led Hezbollah’s armed resistance, forcing Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon after an 18-year occupation. Nasrallah also committed Hezbollah to support Syrian President Bashar Assad regime’s in the Syrian Civil War in 2011, playing a key role in Assad keeping power in the region.

Reuters notes that Nasrallah turned Hezbollah into a regional force:

Nasrallah’s death deals a huge blow to the group. He will be remembered among his supporters for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To enemies, he was head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist theocracy in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.

His regional influence was on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza war, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit, operating under the umbrella of “The Axis of Resistance”.

“We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah said in an Aug. 1 speech at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
Yet when thousands of Hezbollah members were injured and dozens killed, when their communications devices exploded in an apparent Israeli attack last week, that battle began to turn against his group.

Now the questions are: who’ll replace him and will his death seriously damage Hezbollah in the longer term. The New York Times:

And now he is gone, a blow to the organization so deep that it raises crucial questions about how and whether its remaining forces can strike back at Israel.

Israel long considered Mr. Nasrallah not only a terrorist, but also the wily figure behind one of its most immediate national security threats. Israeli officials have described their swift escalation against the group, which culminated in the killing of Mr. Nasrallah, as a type of shock-and-awe campaign, aimed at damaging Hezbollah so quickly that Israel would not need to send ground troops across its northern border to meet its objectives in debilitating the group.

With Mr. Nasrallah gone, there is no other Hezbollah leader to take his place who comes close to him in terms of stature and experience. Still, officials and analysts in the United States, while acknowledging his death as damaging the group, cautioned that counting Hezbollah out too quickly could be a mistake.

They pointed to Gaza, where Israel has fought for 11 months to break Hamas, a less sophisticated adversary, without achieving a decisive victory and with a tremendously high cost in human lives.

Hamas’s extensive web of tunnels has bedeviled Israeli forces, and Hezbollah has its own networks. In fact, Hamas learned what it knows about tunnels from Hezbollah, American officials said. One official called Hezbollah Hamas’s “big brother.”

Israel has attacked Hezbollah’s tunnel network with artillery strikes but done little damage, U.S. officials say. Any larger effort would require heavier and more destructive bombs, likely followed by a ground campaign to clear fighters and weapons launching sites, Dana Stroul, a former Pentagon deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East, said in an interview.


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