Israel on Friday sought to deal a decisive blow to Hezbollah by targeting the Iranian-backed group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and said it intends to escalate the war in the region to achieve that goal. emphasized.
It is unclear whether Mr. Nasrallah was killed in Friday's attack on Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut, which destroyed several buildings and sent plumes of orange and black smoke billowing into the sky above the horizon.
Nasrallah has led the US-designated terrorist group Hezbollah since taking over in 1992 after his predecessor was assassinated by Israel.
Nasrallah is a longtime enemy of Israel who fought two major wars in Lebanon in 1982 and 2006. For the past 18 years, Nasrallah has positioned Hezbollah near the Lebanese-Israel border, probing Israel's defenses and regularly engaging in gun battles.
A religious cleric, Nasrallah expanded Hezbollah's popularity among the Lebanese population, institutionalized Hezbollah's political influence in government and communities, and trained the army into a well-resourced and powerful fighting force.
“Charismatic, highly intelligent, and deeply religious, his face appears on billboards, keychains, and screen savers. Excerpts of his speeches are even used as cell phone ringtones.” wrote the Council on Foreign Relations in a 2010 profile.
a2006 Washington Post ProfileNasrallah described himself as “a man of God, guns and government, a cross between Khomeini and Che Guevera,” he said.
The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist group. The Treasury Department, which is imposing sanctions on Nasrallah, says he was born between 1953 and 1960 in al-Basriya, Lebanon.
Nasrallah studied at Islamic seminaries in Iraq and Iran and received training in Iranian military camps. He joined Hezbollah during the 1982 Israel-Lebanon War and engaged in armed resistance against the 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
“We used to talk a lot among ourselves about what we would do if we wanted to expel the Israeli occupation from our country,” Nasrallah told the Washington Post in 2006. He talked about his formative years in the 2000s.
“We became aware of what is happening in Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan and the Sinai. We came to the conclusion that we cannot depend on the Arab League countries nor on the United Nations. The only option left is to take up arms and fight the occupying forces.
The 2006 Lebanon War became one of the most decisive conflicts between Israel and Nasrallah after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers across the Israeli-Lebanon border. Israel's response was so widespread and devastating that Nasrallah later admitted he was surprised by its intensity.
“At this point, we did not have one percent of the idea that this seizure would lead to a war of this magnitude,” Nasrallah told Lebanon's New TV channel.According to a report in the Guardian at the time,. “You ask me, if I had known on July 11 that this operation would lead to such a war, would I have done it? I say no, absolutely not. Masu.”
anonymous Israeli officialtold the New York TimesIn August 2006, despite a ceasefire agreement reached, Israel claimed it had left its mark on Nasrallah and intended to kill him.
However, over the next almost two decades under Nasrallah's leadership, the Shiite extremist group accumulated around 150,000 rockets and spent significant resources building tunnels into Israel (later Israel destroyed). He gained extensive combat experience in Syria through the civil war.
Hezbollah receives significant financial, technical and diplomatic support from Iran, which Israel considers the biggest existential threat in the Middle East.
On October 7, while Israel was reeling from Hamas attacks across the Gaza Strip border, military forces quickly rallied along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, as Hezbollah invaded the country and attacked communities there. and prepared for a hail of rockets.
But while Prime Minister Nasrallah chose to refrain from the green-light rocket fire with Israel that had terrorized communities on both sides of the border, the fighting was generally limited to back-and-forth retaliation.
The two countries have been locked in a gunfight for more than a year, with an increase in attacks outpacing diplomatic efforts.
Israel announced in late August that it had carried out a pre-emptive strike to deter a major missile and drone attack from Hezbollah. In mid-September, Hezbollah accused Israel of being behind a major attack on civilians that detonated thousands of pagers, walkie-talkies, and electronic devices.
In addition to this,Israel carries out more targeted airstrikesThe group's senior leaders – The IDF announced it had killed Hezbollah's military operations chief, Ibrahim Akil. and the top commanders of Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit.
As fighting escalates, leaders from the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East this week issued a joint statement calling for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel has rejected a ceasefire, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, said Israel should defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Enough is enough,” he said.
