The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut, the pro-Iranian movement announced on Saturday, a very hard blow which pushes Lebanon and the Middle East into the unknown.
The death of Hassan Nasrallah, considered the most powerful man in Lebanon, risks shaking his party, destabilizing the country and constitutes a major victory for Israel against Iran and its allies in the region.
“Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah joined his fellow martyrs […] whose march he led for nearly thirty years,” announced a press release from Hezbollah, the closest ally of Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
The leader of Hezbollah was killed in a devastating Israeli raid late Friday afternoon on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where the Israeli army said it had targeted the Islamist movement’s headquarters.
“Hassan Nasrallah is dead,” an Israeli army spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said earlier on X.
“New Order”
At the head of Hezbollah since 1992, Hassan Nasrallah, 64, was a man of religion who was the subject of a veritable cult of personality among the Shiite community in Lebanon. For years he had lived in hiding and rarely appeared in public.
“The message is simple: whoever threatens the citizens of Israel, we will know how to reach them,” warned Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi.
According to an Israeli military statement, Ali Karaké, presented as the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, as well as other commanders of the movement were killed alongside Hassan Nasrallah in the operation called “New Order”.
The army then claimed that “most” of Hezbollah’s senior leaders had been “eliminated” during Israeli operations in recent months.
“Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah”
The attack on Nasrallah “was very sophisticated. This demonstrates not only enormous technological capabilities but also the extent to which Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah,” said James Dorsey, a researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
“There is still a way to go,” said army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani, estimating the movement’s arsenal at “tens of thousands of rockets” and saying that Hezbollah still has “the capacity to fire several simultaneously” on Israel.
The strike in the southern suburbs destroyed dozens of buildings according to an AFP photographer and forced thousands of residents to flee, including several families who slept in the street. According to a provisional report from the Lebanese authorities, at least six people died.
Several hours after the strike, columns of smoke still rose from the rubble.
“Stupid politics”
Financed and armed by Iran, Hezbollah was created in 1982 at the initiative of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.
Without mentioning Hassan Nasrallah’s name, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said “the massacre of defenseless people in Lebanon” “proved the short-sighted and stupid policies of the leaders of the usurping regime.”
Hassan Nasrallah’s predecessor, Abbas Moussaoui, was killed in February 1992 by an Israeli raid on his convoy in southern Lebanon. His wife and one of his sons also died there.
Despite the blows dealt by Israel which constantly bombs Hezbollah strongholds, the movement announced on Saturday that it had fired rockets against northern Israel. But the vast majority of rockets are often intercepted.
Last Monday, the Israeli army launched a violent and deadly bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, after a year of cross-border firefights with the Lebanese formation.
Hezbollah opened a front against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by an attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel led by Palestinian Hamas, its ally.
Israel claims to be acting to stop Hezbollah’s fire towards the north of its territory, bordering southern Lebanon, and thus allow the return of tens of thousands of residents forced to flee.
“140 targets”
On Saturday, the Israeli army said it had carried out strikes on “140 Hezbollah targets” since Friday evening, and claimed to have killed one of its commanders in a raid on southern Lebanon.
A new Israeli strike also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, hitting a building according to a security source.
Faced with “the deterioration of the security situation”, the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency have recommended that airlines avoid the airspaces of Lebanon and Israel. This recommendation is at this stage valid until October 31. Several companies have already announced that they have suspended their flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv.
Since Monday, Israeli bombings have left more than 700 dead, the majority of them civilians according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. In one year, the number of people killed rose to more than 1,500, a death toll higher than that of the 33 days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.