Israel succeeded in decapitating the Shiite group Hezbollah, killing its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, as well as other commanders killed in recent weeks in selective attacks carried out by Israeli aircraft. Nasrallah was one of the most elusive men in the Middle East. He had been living in hiding for years and without appearing in person in public, precisely to protect his life. Eventually, the Israeli army got the better of them in an attack on the suspected Hezbollah headquarters in the south of the Lebanese capital, using bunker busting bombs. Nothing remains of the six bombed buildings and probably neither of the mortal remains of the Shiite leader.
In addition to Nasrallah, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – an armed body that works closely with Hezbollah – and other commanders of the Shiite militia died, as well as several people who were still in the Dahie region, in Shiite majority and Shiite majority. Hezbollah stronghold from which many of its inhabitants fled this week for fear of Israeli attacks. Entire families sleep rough in Beirut’s squares and streets, considered safer than its southern suburbs.
This Saturday, Israeli planes continued to strike Dahie and, in one of these attacks, “eliminated” Hassan Jalil Yassin, head of the Hezbollah unit which identifies “military and civilian objectives” on Israeli territory, according to an army press release. Columns of smoke rose above southern Beirut following the bombings and dust remained in the air caused by the loud explosions that killed Nasrallah on Friday evening, destroying six multi-story buildings. 33 people also died and nearly 200 were injured by Israeli bombings on other parts of the country, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The Israeli army and government defended the attack in a highly populated area and called the objective “legitimate.” “The elimination of arch-terrorist Nasrallah is one of the most justified anti-terrorist actions Israel has ever carried out,” declared its Foreign Minister, Israel Katz. “Nasrallah, who dedicated his life to the destruction of Israel and carried out terrorist activities against Israel for more than 30 years, deserved to be killed and it is a positive thing that he was,” he said. underlined Katz in his account X The Defense Forces. published a diagram of Hezbollah’s military leadership, with all its leaders crossed out with the word “eliminated”, including Nasrallah himself.
But the death of the Hezbollah leader did not prevent rocket fire from southern Lebanon towards northern and central Israel, where sirens warning of a bombing sounded several times this Saturday. Yemen’s Houthi rebels also launched a missile into Israeli territory, which was intercepted by air defenses. Most of the projectiles targeting Israel were destroyed and caused no casualties, but the country remains on alert for possible reprisals from Hezbollah and its allies in the region – such as the Yemeni Houthis or pro-Iranian militias in Iraq –. The Palestinian group Hamas, which Hezbollah supported during the more than 11-month offensive against the Gaza Strip, said Nasrallah’s death would increase “resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also confirmed on Sunday the death of the military force’s deputy operations commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, in the same attack Friday in which leader Hasan Nasrallah died. “Guard Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, one of the veteran and proud commanders of the Holy Defense and advisor to the IRGC (Guard) in Lebanon, joined his fellow martyrs in the terrorist attack of the brutal Zionist regime in the afternoon of Friday September 1st. 27″, they said, in a statement collected by EFE.
The “Axis of Resistance” promises to endure
The Lebanese political and armed movement mourned the death of its secretary general, but promised that he would follow the path he marked during his 30 years of leadership. “The leadership of Hezbollah promises the greatest, holiest and most valuable martyr of our career… that he will continue his efforts to confront the enemy in support of Gaza and Palestine, and to defend Lebanon and its honorable people,” he declared in a statement collected by the EFE Agency.
After this hard blow, we do not know who will take the reins of Hezbollah, but the name that rings out as a possible successor to Nasrallah is that of his maternal cousin and head of the Executive Council of the Shiite group, the cleric Hachem. Safi al Din. In addition to leading the movement’s executive body, he has also been a military commander in southern Lebanon since 2010, a key position in cross-border operations against Israel. Like most senior Hezbollah officials, Safi al Din is on Washington’s terrorist list because he is “a key member” of the group, according to a memo published in 2017 by the US State Department.
Some analysts point out that after the assassination of most of Hezbollah’s leaders by Israel, the new leaders, some of whom will belong to new generations of the Shiite movement, could be more radical and less pragmatic than Nasrallah and the old guard The group could adopt a more violent line and, as proof, since the brutal attack on Friday afternoon in Beirut, Hezbollah has been launching rockets against populated areas and civilian targets, and not just against military targets, as the group claims . .over the last few months.
In Iran – godfather and sponsor of Hezbollah – the The government declared five days of mourning for the death of Nasrallah. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a statement that the slain Shiite cleric’s legacy “will be strengthened by his blood”, according to the official IRNA news agency. Furthermore, Iran’s highest authority said the Muslim world had an obligation to support Hezbollah and the Lebanese in the face of what he called a “massacre of defenseless people in Lebanon.”
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian denounced the “terrorist” attack that claimed Nasrallah’s life and said that with his death, “the family tree of resistance will be stronger than ever.” Tehran leads the so-called “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the United States, which includes militias such as Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas, the Houthi rebels as well as Syria.
In a statement released by IRNA, Pezeshkian said that “Americans cannot exonerate themselves from complicity with the Zionists,” although the Pentagon assured that the United States was not involved and had not been informed in advance of the selective attack against Nasrallah.
US supports escalation
Also on Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke twice by telephone with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant about the Beirut bombing – the largest since the campaign began Israeli air strike against Lebanon this week, in which around 700 people were killed. According to a Pentagon statement, Austin “expressed his full support for Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens against Iranian-backed terrorist groups.” Furthermore, he noted that Washington is “determined to prevent Iran and its allies and proxies exploit this situation to expand the conflict.
As it has in previous weeks and months, Joe Biden’s administration has supported its main partner in the Middle East against the groups that Israel and the United States consider terrorist: Hamas and Hezbollah ( the European Union only classifies the weapons with which they are armed). both, but not their political parties).
President Biden said that with the assassination of Nasrallah, “justice has been served for his many victims, including thousands of American, Israeli and Lebanese civilians.” “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans during a reign of terror that lasted approximately four decades,” the president recalled in a press release from the White House, in which he reiterated Israel’s right. for self-defense.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government continues to count on American support for its offensives, both in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon. Although the Biden administration has advocated a ceasefire in Lebanon – presenting a proposal with France, which Israel rejected – and insisted that a full-scale war in the Middle East can still be avoided, it does not seem to consider that Israel’s incendiary action These actions could lead to an outbreak of violence on a regional scale.
Israeli political and military leaders, knowing that they have the approval of Washington, are not willing to stop their war on two fronts: Gaza, in the south, and Lebanon, in the north. Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi assured that Israeli forces are “in their maximum preparation, both defensively and offensively, on all fronts, and are ready for any eventuality.”
