The head of the Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, He died this Friday under Israeli bombs in Beirut, a fate that he had been able to avoid during the more than 30 years in which he was the head of political formation and military member of the Lebanese Shiite movement.
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His death opens an unpredictable scenario both about the future of the group and the open conflict it has had with Israel since October 8.
Israel said this Saturday that its nemesis fell under a wave of bombings on one of Hezbollah’s headquarters in its fiefdom of El Dahye, on the southern outskirts of Beirut.
For its part, Hezbollah limited itself to announcing Nasrallah’s death in a biographical and condolence statement, without referring to the attack that devastated several residential buildings in Dahye and left at least six dead and dozens injured, according to Lebanese authorities.
His death came after a week of massive attacks on the group unleashed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.which already caused the death of several senior leaders of the party and armed militia allied with Iran, as well as the death of dozens of Lebanese civilians.
After exploding thousands of communication devices in the hands of members of the group, launching four selective attacks against their commanders in Dahye, and devastating the group’s main strongholds in the country by air, Israel found what it was looking for.
On Friday afternoon he bombed Dahye with Nasrallah as a specific target.
Who was Hassan Nasrallah?
Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960, into a modest family in the eastern suburbs of Beirut and from school he showed great religious fervor.
Follower of Imam Musa Sadr, leader of the Lebanese Shiite community who later disappeared under strange circumstances, Nasrallah joined the Amal Shiite political movement as a teenager and participated in some of its protests.
When he was almost of age, he traveled to the Iraqi city of Najaf, cradle of Shiite theological thought, where he was taught by some of the clerics who accompanied Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the Iranian Islamic Revolution.
Upon his return to Lebanon, he studied under the supervision of his predecessor at the head of Hezbollah, Abbas Musawi.
In 1982 he was one of the creators of Hezbollah, “the Party of God” and from the beginning he was part of its governing body, the “Council of Seven”.
Nasrallah stood out as one of the leaders of the reformist current, which sought to incorporate the clandestine group into Lebanese political life.
This was his rise within the leadership of Hezbollah
Nasrallah took the reins of the Shiite movement in 1992 after his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in southern Lebanon.
He was always very aware that as the ultimate leader of Hezbollah he was a declared enemy of Israel. Since 2006 he was living in secret locations.
Since that date, He only appeared in public on a handful of occasions, the last of which was a dozen years ago. Despite the growing conflict, his appearances were only televised from unknown locations.
“I haven’t used cell phones or landlines in years for safety reasons and even if I wanted to, they wouldn’t allow me to,” he acknowledged last May, apologizing for not being able to receive condolences or attend his mother’s funeral, where his words were issued. engraved words.
His oratory and charisma, recognized in the Arab world, were two of his main assets, as renowned as his caution.
Nasrallah’s impact on Hezbollah
Nasrallah brought Hezbollah out of hiding and turned it into a political party, with a projection beyond being a simple militia or a religious brotherhood.
In 1992 he ran his first elections and won twelve seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
As secretary of the group, a close ally of Iran, Nasrallah garnered great respect in the Arab world, particularly after his belligerent and uncompromising stance helped Israel leave Lebanon after 18 years of occupation.
In later years he maintained his position, which ended up leading to the 2006 conflict in which Hezbollah and Israel exchanged blows for five weeks in a “particular” war that affected a large part of Lebanon.
Instead of disarming and withdrawing from Lebanon’s southern border, as stipulated in the 2006 peace agreement, Hezbollah heavily rearmed, obtained long-range weapons and continued its harassment of Israel, which responded fiercely.
During all this time Hezbollah consolidated itself as a State within the Lebanese State, with impregnable fiefdoms and a powerful military force.
Hezbollah entered the Gaza war in 2023 to support its Hamas allies and to destabilize Israel’s northern flank.
The brutality of the Israeli response, which took almost a year and took more than 700 lives in less than a week, seems to have been too much for the elusive cleric this time.
Unpredictable scenario for the future of Hezbollah
On September 20, Israel already killed the head of military operations and the Radwan elite forces, Ibrahim Aqil, in another attack in Beirut, in which at least 16 other members of the group and dozens of civilians were also killed.
At the end of July, in another bombing in Beirut, Hezbollah’s then number two, Fuad Shukr, was killed.
“We hope that (the attack) changes Hezbollah’s way of acting (…) Are we prepared for a broader escalation? Yes. Our forces are on high alert, (the intelligence services) show high preparation,” he said. this Saturday a military spokesperson told the international press.
Jason Burke, international security correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian, He notes that finding a replacement for Nasrallah will be difficult, especially since there is currently no commander within the group who has the experience or influence of the slain leader.
“Even without Israel’s removal of key lieutenants in recent months, there is no one in the movement who comes even remotely close to Nasrallah’s stature, experience or regional influence. It is now clear that Israel is capable of mustering critical and timely information from the very heart of Hezbollah and to act on it effectively. The life expectancy of any new secretary general is likely extremely short,” he said.
Burke also points out that the consequences of his murder are difficult to identify. While the most pessimistic will predict a much greater escalation with Iran avenging the death of the Hezbollah chief, others are betting that his death can deter Iran by demonstrating Israel’s capabilities to reach the hearts of its enemies.
*With Efe and AFP
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