When the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Friday it’d killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in a targeted airstrike on the group’s headquarters in Beirut, the world was shaken from its slumber. The strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran-backed proxy military, Hezbollah, has launched a new chapter in the conflict between Israel and its Arab-Islamic North African and Middle Eastern allies. As polarising as this conflict has become, Friday’s strike signalled its most significant turning point since the four-week war back in 2006, when Israel launched Operation Just Reward against Hezbollah for capturing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
IDF Confirms Nasrallah’s Death
IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani declared in an official statement that ‘Hassan Nasrallah is dead. He will no longer be able to terrorize the world.’ The strike hit the underground bunker of the Iranian proxy movement Hezbollah in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah headquarters. Several Hezbollah commanders were killed including Ali Karki, the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and Muhammad Ali Ismail, head of the group’s missile unit in southern Lebanon.
Strategic Targeting of Hezbollah Leadership
The operation saw four or more Israeli fighter jets drop precision-guided 4,000-lb GBU-28 or a 2,000-lb BLU-109 bunker-buster bomb capable of penetrating underground facilities before detonating. The IDF claims it identified the bunker where Nasrallah and his top associates were hunkered down underneath civilian buildings — a tactic that Hezbollah is known to employ to make targeting difficult. The use of civilian buildings as a shield is intended as a deterrent to attacks.
The IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that the strike had been planned for a while: ‘It was the right time; we did it in a very precise way.’ The airstrike served to undermine Hezbollah’s leadership, he claimed, and he warned that the campaign won’t be over with this operation. ‘There will be more Israeli military operations in the future,’ he said. ‘We have more capacity going forward.
Hezbollah Confirms Nasrallah’s Death, Vows Retaliation
In a public statement, Hezbollah also announced Nasrallah’s demise, pledging to continue their battle against Israel, cautioning that ‘revenge against the enemy is certain and heinous’. Hezbollah’s media arm, Al-Manar TV, added that ‘severe retaliation’ awaited Israeli forces. Nasrallah’s death leaves Hezbollah in a vulnerable position, with many analysts questioning who would take the helm of one of the most powerful militant groups in the Middle East.
In the same attack, Ali Karki, the deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah and another leading commander, was also killed, as were ‘dozens of senior officials’ more. According to reports, the killing of Ismail and his deputy would likely hamstring Hezbollah’s missile program – a cornerstone for the group’s military strategy directed at Israel.
Reactions from Iran and the Region
Iran – Hezbollah’s main sponsor – reacted furiously to the news. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, did not mention Nasrallah, but told Israel that its strikes against Hezbollah were ‘shortsighted and foolish’ and threatened that Lebanon would make Israel ‘repent’ the attack. But in doing so, Khamenei also alluded to the possibility of Iranian involvement in future Hezbollah operations. He warned that, in the future, Israel could end up ‘waging war against Iran and facing ’120,000 rockets raining down on it from all sides’.
Iran’s embassy in Beirut described the attack as a ‘dangerous, game-changing escalation’; the strike itself was a war crime and should be ‘appropriately punished’. Hezbollah had already responded, firing rockets into Safed, an Israeli city, killing no one.
Broader Implications for the Middle East
His assassination will mark the end of the long rivalry with Israel. He had inherited the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon back in 1992, and, under his command, the formerly small Islamist organisation was transformed into an armed force with considerable power in Lebanon and the wider Middle East. During his time in office, Nasrallah fought Israel in the Israel-Lebanon War in 2006, and assembled in the country a collection of more than 150,000 missiles.
Analysts fear that his death could fuel instability within Lebanon, which is experiencing a deep economic crisis and political dysfunction. Nasrallah is a ‘legendary figure’ and his death could ‘shake up Hezbollah from the inside,’ Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, told Reuters. The Hezbollah leader has ‘been the cement that has been holding together an expanding organization,’ Ali added, noting that his departure could trigger an internal power struggle, especially without a clear successor in the wings.
Israeli Preparations for Further Escalation
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have personally authorized the airstrike after Israeli intelligence identified Nasrallah’s location. After the attack, Netanyahu said that Israel remained on high alert for the possibility of further escalation. He noted that Israel had ‘cut off the head of Hezbollah’s serpent’. Nasrallah’s death is part of Israel’s plan to degrade the terrorist group’s hierarchy in preparation of an even wider ground invasion.
Netanyahu’s government, meanwhile, has been reaching out to key international allies, including Washington, about the possible repercussions of the attack. If Israel has been ratcheting up the pressure on Hezbollah with a series of targeted strikes against some of its more prominent leaders over the past 12 months, the death of Nasrallah is arguably the biggest blow yet to the Iran-supplied group.
What Comes Next?
Hassan Nasrallah’s death could usher in a new, more deadly chapter in the Israel-Hezbollah war Are these fears justified? Iran’s possible reaction to Mossad’s explosive handiwork beyond Israel’s northern border could ignite an all-out war involving not only Israel and Hezbollah. According to Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, the region’s battlefields may become far more violent and bloody in the war’s aftermath. In Lebanon, Syria and Israel, there could be a ramping up of military activity on the part of Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas. ‘I’ve never seen such a high level of anger and rage among Lebanese,’ Gerges told the UK paper The Independent shortly after the assassination. ‘This is an all-out war.
Besides that, the fragmentation of Hezbollah could provide an opportunity for the movement’s missile arsenal to be used in attacks on central Israeli cities. As the region waits on edge to see what happens next – how Hezbollah will react in the coming days, and whether Israel will pull back from taking the battle across the Middle East – it would do well to be prepared for anything.
For further details on the evolving situation, visit Reuters, Politico, and The Jerusalem Post.
