On Saturday September 28, Hezbollah officially announced the death of its Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed the evening prior in a violent Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. The air raid leveled around 10 residential buildings in the Burj al Barajneh area of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Childhood and Education
Nasrallah was born in the Burj Hammoud area of Beirut’s Southern Suburbs in 1960 according to official records, although his father, Karim Nasrallah, claims his son was born in 1959. His father hails from the southern village of Bazourieh, near Tyre.
Nasrallah expressed an interest in theological studies from a young age. He joined al-Najah school and later studied at a public university in the municipality of Sin el Fil.
He studied at a series of seminaries, including the Shia seminary in the town of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, and the Ayatollah al-Sadr’s seminary in the Iraqi city of Najaf, becoming further entrenched in his faith.
Expulsion from Iraq, Joining Amal and then Hezbollah
Along with a dozen of other Lebanese students, Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq in 1978 and came back to Lebanon, where he soon developed an interest in politics.
He soon joined the Amal Movement.
Nasrallah studied and taught at the school of then-Amal leader Abbas al-Musawi, only to be selected later as the group’s political delegate in the Bekaa region, which also made him a member of the central political office.
In 1982, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Hezbollah was formed by a number of Lebanese clerics following the model of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomenei and his revolution in 1979. It was then that the group formed what would become a long-standing relationship with Iran. Many if not all of the group’s initial members had broken out of the Amal Movement and operated under the name of the Islamic Jihad Movement, which was dissolved and later became part of the banner of Hezbollah.
Nasrallah was one of those who joined the group in 1982. He briefly traveled to Qom, Iran in 1989 to further his religious studies, and returned to Lebanon in 1991.
After the end of the Lebanese Civil War and the passing of an amnesty law that pardoned all political crimes prior to it in 1991, all Lebanese militias, with the exception of Hezbollah, were dissolved. Israel had still been occupying areas in the south of Lebanon, while the Syrian army remained in Lebanon.
Leadership of Hezbollah
In 1992, Hezbollah’s second Secretary General Abbas al-Moussawi was assassinated by Israeli helicopters alongside his wife, son and four others in an attack that targeted a motorcade in southern Lebanon.
While many within Hezbollah were skeptical about electing 31-year old Nasrallah, the need to elect a successor quickly after al-Moussawi’s assassination was pressing, so as not to give Israel the impression of victory. Soon enough, Nasrallah assumed the position of Secretary General within the group – a position he held up until his assassination in 2024.
He quickly led a structural makeshift of the party. On one hand, Hezbollah develops new military strategies and ways of operations, improving military capabilities.
On the other, Nasrallah engrains the group in Lebanon’s political landscape through taking part in parliamentarian, governmental and other policymaking structures and expanding outreach to amass democratic support from the country’s population in what was considered the Lebanonization of Hezbollah.
His strategic, military and oratory skills propelled him quickly to the top of the party, making him the face of Hezbollah. The group’s leader cemented himself as a wise, humble figure who spoke the language of the people.
Series of Conflicts
Nasrallah led Hezbollah in a number of conflicts against occupying Israel. The first notable battle started only one year after he took leadership, with Israel launching Operation Accountability in 1993.
Israel then initiated Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996, with both battles ending in ceasefire agreements whereby both parties stopped exchanging attacks, leaving large devastation across Lebanon. These conflicts were an important milestone in Nasrallah’s reputation, as in only 16 days of conflict in 1996, Hezbollah managed to fire 639 rockets towards Israel.
Later, amid internal turmoil at the level of the Israeli administration, Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon was deemed unsustainable and incapable of stopping Hezbollah attacks reaching into Israel. This pushed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon in 2000, a feat considered by many to be unprecedented in the Arab world.
This event greatly propelled Nasrallah to the status of “national hero” to many, with celebrations taking place across the entire country. Nasrallah and Hezbollah cemented their place as a sturdy resistance against the enemy.
In the last few decades, Nasrallah was described by many to be the most powerful man in Lebanon, largely due to the organizational strength that Hezbollah saw during his leadership.
Internal Turmoil and the 2006 War
In 2005, the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik el Hariri, journalist Samir Kassir, and a list of other prominent figures pushed many among the Lebanese population to turn against the Hezbollah-Syrian security apparatus. After widespread protests, the Syrian army left Lebanon in 2005 after fifteen years of presence since the end of the civil war.
In 2006, Lebanon entered a war against Israel lasting 34 days after Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers, injured two others and captured yet another two near the border. While popular support for Hezbollah was widespread across Lebanon, many also criticized Nasrallah across both national and foreign levels for the risks that the launch of the war presented.
In 2008, following an 18-month-long political crisis, the government took a security decision to dismantle Hezbollah’s telecommunication system at Lebanon’s main airport as it considered it a breach of law, of sovereignty and on public funds. The government also ordered the removal of Brigadier General Wafic Shkeir, considered close to Hezbollah and Amal, as head of the airport’s security.
Following a series of protests and minor clashes, Nasrallah declared that “[all] red lines had been crossed”, and Hezbollah-led fighters seized control of many West Beirut neighborhoods, with the fighting extending to the district of Aley and the city of Tripoli. This caused a considerable dent to Nasrallah’s popularity among large swathes of Lebanon’s population.
In 2013, Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah will be fighting in the Syrian civil war on the same side as the Syrian army and the Assad government. The decision to enter the war alongside the Assad government led to Nasrallah losing even more popularity, this time not only in Lebanon but across Syria and the entire Arab region. The decision also represented to many that Hezbollah’s loyalty to Iran is overtaking its attachment to Lebanese and Arab causes.
After the popular uprising in 2019, a large number of protesters, many of whom were Hezbollah supporters, left the manifestations after chants went against Hezbollah and, more considerably, after Nasrallah went against the uprising and accused it of being largely driven by foreign embassies.
October 8, 2023
Since October 8, 2023, Nasrallah had been leading Hezbollah as part of what was described as a “support front” to Palestinian armed groups against Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the West Bank.
Hezbollah lost a number of senior commanders since October 8 2023, including head of operations and commander of the Radwan Forces, Ibrahim Aqil, and senior military commander, Fouad Shukr.
Nasrallah was assassinated as part of an Israeli air raid that leveled around ten residential buildings in the densely populated area of Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s Southern Suburbs on September 27, 2024.
The assassination of Nasrallah has taken Lebanon and the region to the unknown, with the party yet to announce adjustments to its leadership and structure. What continues, for the time being, is Israel’s unabated aggression amid the failure of the international community to take proper action.