Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed the death of their top leader, Syed Hassan Nasrallah, following Israel’s claim that the 64-year-old had been eliminated in an airstrike on Beirut.
Nasrallah was among the most prominent and influential leaders in the Middle East; a leading figure in the fight of resistance against the state of Israel.
He remained in hiding for years because of the threat to his life by Israeli forces before being killed by the country’s defence forces in Beirut on Friday.
Nasrallah, considered to have very close links to Iran, played a significant role in shaping and making Hezbollah into the political and military power it is today.
He helped Hezbollah fighters train the Palestinian armed group Hamas, as well as militias in Yemen and Iraq, and also procured missiles and rockets from Iran for use against Israel.
Born in 1960, Nasrallah, the eldest of nine siblings, grew up in Beirut’s Eastern Bourj Hammoud neighbourhood.
During the 1975 Lebanese civil war, he joined the Amal movement, then a Shia militia, after Lebanon
He attended a Shia seminary for religious teachings in the Iraqi city of Najaf, after which he joined Amal, a Shia group, in 1982 after Israel invaded Lebanon following attacks by a Palestinian group.
In 1985, Hezbollah officially announced its establishment by publishing an "open letter" identifying the US and the Soviet Union as Islam's principal enemies and called for the "obliteration" of Israel, which it said was occupying Muslim lands.
Nasrallah quickly rose up the ranks before finally leading the group.
At the age of 32, he became chief of Hezbollah in 1992, following his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi being assassinated in an Israeli helicopter strike.
Till 2006, when there was relative calm between Israel and Lebanon, the group became active and engaged in one of the fiercest battles with Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, responded with airstrikes in the south and Beirut’s suburbs. In return, Hezbollah launched 4,000 rockets at Israel. During the confrontations, at least 1,125 Lebanese, most of them civilians, died during the 34-day conflict, as well as 119 Israeli soldiers and 45 civilians.
Israel targeted Nasrallah on several occasions but he managed to escape unhurt.
What is considered a tipping point for Hezbollah was its inclusion in the Syrian civil war that started in 2011, unlike Hamas, which refused to take part in the conflict and shifted its headquarters to Iraq for a short while.
Many experts suggest that it was a mistake on the part of Hezbollah, as the fighters of this group were involved in the terrible mass slaughter of Syrian civilians. The popularity of the group took a serious hit as support from Lebanese Sunni factions waned.
Reportedly, during that 13-year-long war, Hezbollah lost around 5,000 fighters, including its top commanders.
After the October 7 attack, in a speech in November, Nasrallah said the Hamas attack had been "100 per cent Palestinian in terms of both decision and execution," but that the firing between his group and Israel was "very important and significant."
Experts also suggest that Israel was trying to change the goalpost since it failed to achieve objectives in Gaza.
By targeting Lebanon, it was seeking to divert international attention from the devastation in Gaza in the ongoing invasion.
Only weeks before, during his last address, Nasrallah categorically blamed Israel for pager bomb explosions in Lebanon that killed 39 people and injured around 3,000 people, including Hezbollah fighters. He said Israel has "crossed all red lines." He accepted that the group had suffered an "unprecedented loss."
Israel has eliminated Muhammad Deif, the man who planned the October 7 attack and also killed Ismail Haniyeh and now Hassan Nasrallah, along with several top Iranian, Hamas, and Hezbollah commanders in the recent action.
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