At the head of Hezbollah for almost three decades, Hassan Nasrallah died following Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah died following Israeli strikes in Lebanon between Friday and Saturday, the Israeli army announced this Saturday, September 28 in the morning. A statement confirmed by Hezbollah, a Shiite militia dedicated to armed struggle against Israel. The man had been at the head of the Islamist movement for almost three decades and was described as the most powerful man in Lebanon, reports West France.
Over the years, Hezbollah has become a state above the Lebanese state, described The World. The movement is supported financially and militarily by Iran, and has also developed its own sources of financing, including drug trafficking. At its head, Hassan Nasrallah held the destiny of Lebanon in his hands and embodied resistance to Israel within the Arab world. The one who was called the “sayyed” died at the age of 64.
One of the founders of Hezbollah
Born on August 31, 1960, Hassan Nasrallah came from a modest family of nine children, from the former “poverty belt” which surrounded Beirut, indicates West France. As a teenager, he studied theology in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, Iraq, before fleeing the anti-Shia repression of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Hassan Nasrallah had joined the Lebanese Amal party, founded by Moussa al-Sadr, whom he admired. But about a decade later, the party split between those wanting compromise with Israel and those wanting armed struggle. Hassan Nasrallah was thus part of the founding core of Hezbollah, created in 1985 following this split, and under the leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
In ten years, he rose to the head of the organization, succeeding Abbas Moussaoui, who was assassinated. Over the years, the leader of the movement has consolidated his place within the organization as much as in the Arab world. In September 1997, Hassan Nasrallah lost his son during a Hezbollah mission, who became a martyr, reports The World. An emotional bond is created with the public, who see him as a leader ready to sacrifice his children for the resistance. During his public appearances, Hassan Nasrallah wore the black turban of the Sayyed, the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad to whom he claimed, described West France.
Israel’s sworn enemy
He wanted to be a war leader. With weapons supplied in particular by Iran, Hassan Nasrallah trained and supported movements close to Tehran in an “axis of resistance”, including armed groups in Iraq, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as Palestinian Hamas, the newspaper indicates. . In 2013, he announced support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad with a military intervention in Syria, then in the midst of a civil war.
Hassan Nasrallah was Israel’s sworn enemy, recalls the local newspaper, and had rarely appeared in public since the summer of 2006. At that time, a 33-day war had opposed the pro-Iranian Islamist movement. to the Israeli army. 1,200 Lebanese had lost their lives, most of them civilians, compared to 160 Israelis. Hassan Nasrallah nevertheless claimed “a divine victory” over Israel.
His whereabouts have since been kept secret. He had taken refuge in a bunker under the southern suburbs of Beirut to escape assassination attempts, reports The World. In October 2023, Hassan Nasrallah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas and Gaza. At that time, Hezbollah was the most powerful militia in the world, with at least 20,000 fighters, almost as many reservists and an arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets and missiles, details The World.
But the movement was gradually infiltrated by Israeli intelligence, which notably allowed the explosion of the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members. Hassan Nasrallah ultimately died in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.