Who was Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader killed by Israel? | Middle East, the eternal conflict

Sworn enemy of Israel, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah – who died after being the target of an Israeli attack – avoided public appearances and lived in hiding to escape the Israeli army, and has done so since about twenty years.

Living in hiding since the last war between Israel and his party in 2006, he nevertheless regularly gave speeches broadcast live to which all of Lebanon was suspended. A powerful orator who mastered classical Arabic and Persian, he delivered speeches punctuated with references to the restoration of lost Arab manhood.

He appeared less somber than most Shiite clerics and never advocated strict Islamic rules such as the wearing of the veil for women. He was also the subject of a veritable cult of personality among his supporters, mainly within the Shiite Muslim community from which he came.

At the head of Hezbollah since 1992

At the head of this impressive, heavily armed militia since its creation 32 years ago, Hassan Nasrallah, who was 64 years oldswas the most powerful man in Lebanon, deciding neither more nor less on war or peace.

Hezbollah, classified as a terrorist organization since 1997 by the United States, was formed by members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who arrived in Lebanon in the summer of 1982 to fight invading Israeli forces. This is also the first group that Iran supported and used as a means of exporting its doctrine. of political Islam.

Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah, a name meaning Party of Godhas become the most powerful Iranian-backed paramilitary group in the Middle East with an arsenal of ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.

Armed and financed by Iran, it trained and supported movements close to Tehran and thus increased its influence not only in Lebanon but also in the region. Hezbollah then transformed from a militia founded to fight against Israeli troops occupying Lebanon to a military force more powerful than the Lebanese army itself.

In addition to being able to count on more than 100,000 fighters and more than 150,000 missiles, Hezbollah has its own telecommunications network. In comparison, according to the most recent World Bank data, which dates from 2020, the Lebanese army has 80,000 men.

A powerful political actor in Lebanon, Hezbollah is an agent of power in Lebanese politics in addition to being a major provider of health, education and social services.

Hezbollah is now considered an important asset of Iran’s allies in the region united in what is nicknamed theaxis of resistancewhich includes armed groups in Iraq, the Houthi rebels of Yemen, Syria as well as the Palestinian Hamas.

Nasrallah’s role in the Middle East war

Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel, Hassan Nasrallah has called for release of Jerusalem, calling IsraelZionist entityand welcomed the attacks by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, calling themheroic, great and grandiose operations. He believed that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians.

From October 8, 2023, the hitherto sporadic fighting between Hezbollah and Israel intensified.

Although Hezbollah has exchanged artillery fire with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, it has nevertheless hesitated to deploy its full arsenal since many Lebanese, tired of economic problems and general chaos, do not want to ‘a new war.

In addition to militias in Iraq and Yemen, Hezbollah has notably helped train fighters from the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

In his last speech on September 19, Mr. Nasrallah accused Israel of blowing up thousands of pagers and radio handsets used by Hezbollah members, killing 39 people, according to the report. BBC, and injured thousands more. Punishment will comehe declared. The manner, extent, manner and location are things that we will certainly keep to ourselves, in the narrowest of circles, even among ourselves.

Who was Hassan Nasrallah?

Hassan Nasrallah was born on August 31, 1960 into a modest family of nine children. He grew up in the Karantina neighborhood, made up of Christian Armenians, Druze, Palestinians and impoverished Shiites.

As a teenager, he studied theology in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, but was forced to leave during then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s wave of anti-Shiite repression.

Back in Lebanon, he became involved in the Amal movement, a Lebanese Shiite political and paramilitary organization linked to Iran. Sometime later, in 1982, he became a founding member of Hezbollah following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. From the outset, Hezbollah aimed to fight against the invasion of Israeli forces and to lead the fight for Islamic resistance.

Mr. Nasrallah became secretary-general of the group after his predecessor, Sayed Abbas Moussaoui, was killed by Israeli forces in 1992.

Married, father of five children, Hassan Nasrallah wore the black turban of the Sayyed, the descendants of the prophet Mohammed to whom he claimed his affiliation.

Mr. Nasrallah is known, according to Arab tradition, as “Abu Hadi” or “father of Hadi”, from the name of his eldest son, who died at age 18 during an exchange of fire with Israeli forces in September 1997. The death of his son had once again consolidated Hassan Nasrallah’s stature in the Middle East.

With information from New York Times, Agence France-Presse, BBC News and NBC