Who was Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, “eliminated” by Israel ?

À Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah for nearly three decades, died following Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah died following Israeli strikes in Lebanon between Friday and Saturday, the Israeli army announced on Saturday morning, September 28. A statement confirmed by Hezbollah, a Shiite militia dedicated to armed struggle against Israel. The man had been the head of the Islamist movement for nearly three decades and was described as the most powerful man in Lebanon, reports Ouest-France.

Hezbollah has become, over the years, a Éstate above the Lebanese state, describes Le Monde. The movement is supported financially and militarily by Iran, and has also developed its own sources of funding, 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 man who was called the “sayyed” died in 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 “belt of misery” that surrounded Beirut, indicates Ouest-France. During his adolescence, he had studied theology in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, before fleeing the anti-Shiite 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 who wanted compromise with Israel and those who wanted armed struggle. Hassan Nasrallah was thus part of the founding core of Hezbollah, created in 1985 following this split, and under the impetus 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 well as in the Arab world. In September 1997, Hassan Nasrallah lost his son during a Hezbollah mission, who became a martyr, reports Le Monde. 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 Mohammed to whom he claimed, described Ouest-France.

The sworn enemy of Israel

He wanted to be a warlord. 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 of Yemen, as well as the Palestinian Hamas, the newspaper indicates. In 2013, he announced support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad by a military intervention in Syria, then in the midst of a civil war.

Hassan Nasrallah was the sworn enemy of Israel, recalls the local newspaper, and had rarely appeared in public since the summer of 2006. At that time, a 33-day war had pitted the pro-Iranian Islamist movement against the Israeli army. 1,200 Lebanese had lost their lives, mostly civilians, compared to 160 Israelis. Hassan Nasrallah nevertheless claimed “a divine victory” on Israel.

His place of residence had since been kept secret. He had taken refuge in a bunker under the southern suburbs of Beirut to escape assassination attempts, reports Le Monde. In October 2023, Hassan Nasrallah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas and Gaza. À 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 Le Monde.

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 was finally killed in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut.