Lebanon’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah guided Hezbollah through years of conflict with Israel, overseeing its evolution into a military force with regional influence and becoming one of the most significant Arab figures of recent times, bolstered by Iranian support.
The Iran-supported Hezbollah group confirmed that Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut yesterday.
Among his supporters, Nasrallah was celebrated for standing up to Israel and defying the United States.
To his adversaries, he was the leader of a terrorist organization, serving as a proxy for Iran’s Shi’ite Islamist regime in its struggle for power in the Middle East.
“We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah stated in an 1 August speech at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who lost his life in an Israeli strike targeting the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
However, as thousands of Hezbollah members sustained injuries and dozens were killed when their communication devices were destroyed in what appeared to be an Israeli assault last week, the tide of that battle began to turn against his organization.
In response to the attacks on Hezbollah’s communication network in a 19 September speech, Nasrallah pledged to retaliate against Israel.
“This is a reckoning that will arrive, its nature, size, and location? This is something we will keep to ourselves and only share within the narrowest circle,” he declared.
Since then, he had not delivered a broadcast address.
Hassan Nasrallah speaking in Beirut in 2004
Meanwhile, Israel significantly escalated its operations, targeting and eliminating several high-ranking Hezbollah commanders and launching extensive bombardments in Hezbollah-dominated areas of Lebanon, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Even his foes acknowledged Nasrallah as a gifted orator, with his speeches attracting attention from both supporters and detractors.
Adorned with the black turban symbolizing a sayyed, or descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah utilized his speeches to energize Hezbollah’s base while simultaneously issuing meticulously calculated threats, often wagging his finger as he spoke.
He became the secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 at the young age of 35, becoming the public face of a previously obscure group established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to combat Israeli occupation.
Nasrallah’s predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, was killed in a helicopter strike by Israel. Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah successfully expelled Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, concluding an 18-year occupation.
‘Divine victory’
His tenure was largely characterized by conflict with Israel. He proclaimed “Divine Victory” in 2006 following a 34-day war with Israel, earning the admiration of many ordinary Arabs who had witnessed Israel’s defeats of their armies.
Yet, he became an increasingly polarizing figure in Lebanon and the broader Arab world as Hezbollah expanded its operations into Syria and beyond, reflecting a deepening struggle between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Arab monarchies allied with the US in the Gulf region.
While Nasrallah framed Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria—supporting President Bashar al-Assad during the civil conflict—as a battle against jihadists, detractors accused the group of entrenching itself in a regional sectarian conflict.
Domestically, critics claimed that Hezbollah’s regional escapades imposed a severe burden on Lebanon, leading previously friendly Gulf nations to distance themselves from the country, a factor that contributed to its financial crisis in 2019.
In the years after the 2006 war, Nasrallah balanced the risk of a new conflict with Israel, stockpiling Iranian rockets in a carefully calibrated game of threat and counter-threat.
The October 7 Hamas attack on Israel ignited Hezbollah’s most severe conflict with Israel since 2006, resulting in heavy losses for the group, including numerous top commanders.
After years of debates elsewhere, the conflict drew renewed attention to Hezbollah’s longstanding battle with Israel.
“We are here paying the price for our support for Gaza, and for the Palestinian people, and our championing of the Palestinian cause,” Nasrallah said in the 1 August speech.
Nasrallah grew up in the impoverished Karantina district of Beirut. His family originates from Bazouriyeh, a village in Lebanon’s predominantly Shi’ite south, which today is Hezbollah’s political stronghold.
He belonged to a generation of young Lebanese Shi’ites whose political views were shaped by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Before helming the group, he spent nights alongside frontline guerrillas fighting against Israel’s occupying forces. The death of his teenage son, Hadi, in battle in 1997, bolstered his legitimacy among his core Shi’ite base in Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah’s son Hadi was killed in battle in 1997
Powerful enemies
He had a history of issuing threats against powerful adversaries.
As regional tensions escalated following the onset of the Gaza war, Nasrallah subtly warned US naval vessels in the Mediterranean, stating: “We are prepared for the fleets that threaten us.”
In 2020, he claimed that US servicemen would leave the region in coffins after the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by a US drone strike in Iraq.
He expressed staunch opposition to Saudi Arabia’s military involvement in Yemen, where, with US and allied assistance, Riyadh aimed to counter the Iran-aligned Houthis.
As tensions between nations rose in 2019 following an attack on Saudi oil facilities, he asserted that Saudi Arabia and the UAE should cease their Yemen campaign for their own protection.
“Don’t bet on a war against Iran because they will destroy you,” he warned in a statement directed towards Riyadh. Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah also confronted foes within Lebanon.
In 2008, he charged the Lebanese government—then backed by the West and Saudi Arabia—with declaring war by attempting to dismantle his group’s internal communication system. Nasrallah vowed to “cut off the hand” that sought to eliminate it.
This led to four days of civil unrest, with Hezbollah clashing against Sunni and Druze fighters and seizing control of half of Beirut.
He firmly denied any Hezbollah involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, after a UN-backed tribunal indicted four group members.
Nasrallah dismissed the tribunal as a tool wielded by Hezbollah’s adversaries, which ultimately led to the 2020 conviction of three members in absentia concerning the assassination.
