Hassan Nasrallah: A Life and Legacy That Refuses to Die

MintPressNews– Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, was assassinated by Israel in late September, an event that reverberated across the region and beyond. According to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), they decided to target Nasrallah after concluding that he would not accept a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon unless a ceasefire was also implemented in Gaza—a demand echoed by the vast majority of the international community and in UN resolutions for over a year.

To carry out the assassination, the IDF dropped 85 American-made bunker-buster bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds, on Beirut, leveling six residential towers and killing dozens of civilians in the process. President Biden described the action as a “small measure of justice” but omitted any acknowledgment of civilian casualties, despite the irony given the U.S. sensitivity to towers filled with civilians being destroyed. Nasrallah, who had openly condemned both Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks, was nonetheless portrayed as a “type of terrorist” akin to bin Laden due to his role as the leader of Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organization by both the U.S. and the U.K.

Following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September, hostilities between southern Lebanon and Israel have intensified. Throughout October, Israel launched a ground invasion aimed at securing its northern border. This campaign has resulted in significant casualties, with hundreds of Israeli soldiers killed or wounded and numerous Merkava tanks destroyed. Despite these efforts, rocket fire into Israel has escalated. Hopes that Nasrallah’s death might de-escalate tensions were further dashed when a drone attack recently targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence.

Nasrallah, the man, may be gone, but his assassination appears to have galvanized his followers, raising a pressing question: Who is more dangerous—Nasrallah the man or Nasrallah the idea?