Hassan Nasrallah

<cite index="1-1">Hassan Nasrallah (31 August 1960 – 27 September 2024) was a Lebanese Shia cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024.</cite> <cite index="4-6">Under Nasrallah, whose surname translates as "victory through God", Hezbollah grew from a local armed movement to the largest political party in Lebanon's recent history.</cite> <cite index="12-1,12-4">On 27 September 2024, Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut at a headquarters located 60 feet underground beneath residential buildings in the Dahieh suburb.</cite> <cite index="10-8,10-9,10-10">The 64-year-old cleric was one of the most powerful and polarizing figures in the Middle East. To many members of Lebanon's Shia community, a historically marginalized group, he was a hero, but others considered him a warmonger who dragged the country into regional conflicts.</cite>

<cite index="1-4">Born into a Shia family in the suburbs of Beirut in 1960, Nasrallah finished his education in Tyre, when he briefly joined the Amal Movement, and afterward at a Shia seminary in Baalbek.</cite> <cite index="21-4">His father, Abdul Karim Nasrallah, was born in Al-Bazouriyah, a village in Jabal Amel (Southern Lebanon) located near Tyre, and worked as a fruit and vegetables seller.</cite> <cite index="22-1">Though his family was not particularly religious, the young Hassan spent his childhood reading the Qur'an and studying Islamic religious texts, and claims to have become fully observant by age 9.</cite>

<cite index="21-7">In 1975, the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War forced the family, including Nasrallah, who was 15 at the time, to move to their ancestral home in Bazourieh, where Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school in Tyre.</cite> <cite index="21-9,21-10">Nasrallah studied at the Shia seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of Iraqi Shi'ite scholar Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who founded the Dawa movement in Najaf, Iraq, during the early 1960s.</cite> <cite index="22-13,22-14,22-15">He later traveled to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, in Iraq, to complete his higher religious studies. There, he met his future colleague and mentor in Hezbollah, Abbas al-Mousaoui, who was eighteen years his senior. Al-Mousaoui introduced Nasrallah to Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, the ideological founder of the Islamic Dawa Party.</cite>

<cite index="22-18,22-19">In 1982, a week after Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Nasrallah defected from Amal along with several other Islamists in response to Nabih Berri joining an alliance with Christian parties working with the Israelis. Under the leadership of Hussein al-Musawi, another Amal official, the defectors formed Islamic Amal which, under IRGC guidance, coalesced with members of the Lebanese Union of Muslim Students, adherents of the Lebanese Dawa Party, and other tiny groups of radical Shiites to form Hezbollah.</cite> <cite index="1-6">Nasrallah served as a founding member of Hezbollah, which was formed to fight the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, declaring that its confrontation with Israel "should only end when it has been removed from existence".</cite>

<cite index="22-4,22-5,22-6">During the early 1980s, he proved himself an adept guerilla fighter and commander, quickly rising through the party's ranks. In 1987, he resumed his religious studies, traveling to the Iranian city of Qom. In 1989, he again returned to Lebanon, as a rift was emerging within Hezbollah's leadership over alliance with Syria, which he opposed.</cite> <cite index="1-7">After a brief period of religious studies in Iran, Nasrallah returned to Lebanon and became Hezbollah's leader after his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike in 1992.</cite>

<cite index="2-2,2-4">Under his leadership, Hezbollah transformed into a major player in national politics with strong grassroots support. Under his leadership, Hezbollah grew beyond its civil war roots as a militia and built up an elaborate network of social welfare programs as well as a political program.</cite> <cite index="29-5,29-6,29-7,29-8,29-9">Nasrallah's leadership of the organization was characterized by his populism. He relied on charisma and subtle charm to express his message. He was not a fiery or intimidating speaker. Rather, he came across as thoughtful, humble, and at times humorous. Moreover, under his leadership, Hezbollah cultivated an elaborate network of social welfare programs, which helped win the group broad grassroots support.</cite>

<cite index="2-20,2-21,2-22">With Hezbollah engaged in a war of attrition against the continued Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, Israel launched an assault in 1996 to combat rockets fired into northern Israel. Nasrallah's national profile was raised when he negotiated, through U.S. mediation, a cease-fire on cross-border attacks with Israel. Later, continued attacks on Israeli forces occupying southern Lebanon led Israel to withdraw in 2000.</cite> <cite index="4-14,4-15,4-16,4-17">In July 2006, Israel launched an incursion into Lebanon after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack. Hezbollah said the kidnappings were to gain leverage for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel. On 14 July 2006, during a speech, Nasrallah urged people in Beirut to look west to the Mediterranean coast. As they did so, Hezbollah fired a surface-to-sea missile against the Israeli naval ship Hanit, killing and wounding several crew.</cite> <cite index="4-19,4-20">Nasrallah's popularity soared, but his public appearances became rarer, amid fear of assassination by Israel. Most of his live speeches are now via video from an undisclosed location.</cite>

<cite index="12-2,12-3,12-4,12-5">On 27 September 2024, the Israeli Air Force conducted an airstrike on Hezbollah's central headquarters located in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut. The strike took place while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at a headquarters located 60 feet (18 m) underground beneath residential buildings. Conducted by the Israeli Air Force using F-15I fighters, the operation involved dropping more than 80 bombs, destroying the underground headquarters as well as nearby buildings.</cite> <cite index="12-8,12-9">The attack resulted in at least 33 fatalities and more than 195 injuries, including civilians. The fatalities included Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah's Southern Front; other senior Hezbollah commanders; and Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.</cite>

<cite index="16-20,16-21">By playing a key part in ending the Israeli occupation, Nasrallah became a "national hero" in Lebanon. A New York Times article reported that an Arab politician called him as the "most powerful man in the Middle East" and the "only Arab leader who actually does what he says he's going to do".</cite> <cite index="20-4,20-5,20-6">Israel's assassination of Hassan Nasrallah is an enormous blow to an organization that has in the past shown considerable resilience. While Nasrallah's death, together with Israel's killing of dozens of the group's senior commanders, may prove to be a temporary shock from which Hezbollah is able to recover, its immediate effects will be profound. In less than a month, Israel has upended the region's strategic landscape through its campaign to weaken Hezbollah's rank and file and eliminate its leadership, culminating in the attack that killed Nasrallah.</cite>

<cite index="3-26,3-27">In 1978, Nasrallah married Fatima Mustafa Yassine, who hails from the south Lebanon village of al-Abbassiyeh. Together, they had five children: Mohammad Hadi (killed by the IDF in 1997), Mohammad Jawad, Zeinab, Mohammad Ali, and Mohammad Mahdi.</cite> <cite index="16-2,16-3,16-4">Nasrallah was quoted as saying on receiving the news of his son's death: "I am proud to be the father of one of the martyrs". When the IDF released photos of his son's body and offered to exchange it for body parts of those killed in the earlier ambush, Nasrallah responded: "Keep it. We have many more men like Hadi ready to offer themselves to the struggle".</cite> <cite index="16-25">Nasrallah was often referred to as "al-Sayyid Hassan" (السيد حسن), the honorific "Sayyid" denoting a claim of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali.</cite>

Sources on Nasrallah's legacy vary significantly based on geographic and political perspective. <cite index="1-23,1-24">Many Lebanese, especially Sunni Muslims and Christians, were not supportive of Nasrallah. He was often seen as an agent of Iranian interests in the region, as his close ties to Tehran led to perceptions that he prioritized Iranian objectives over Lebanese or Arab interests.</cite> <cite index="1-25">Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah had been implicated in numerous assassinations against critics and Lebanese politicians of the March 14 Alliance, and the group has been referred to as a state within a state, serving as Iran's proxy.</cite> <cite index="12-29">In rebel-controlled Idlib, locals celebrated Nasrallah's death for the suffering and deaths caused during the Syrian civil war.</cite>

Conversely, <cite index="9-23">in Lebanon and across the region, Nasrallah still had many admirers.</cite> <cite index="9-21,9-22">Around the world, Hezbollah has been blamed for a number of notorious bombings, attempted bombings and shootings that have killed scores of people, including a blast at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people. Hezbollah was also suspected of involvement -- with Iran -- in the bombing of a Jewish community center in the Argentinian capital two years later that killed another 85 people.</cite>