Ali Rizk
That Hezbollah was dealt an unprecedentedly painful blow with the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah is not up for debate. While Israel succeeded in taking out the Lebanese movement’s former leader, Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, the latter’s tenure was short-lived, having been appointed as secretary general of Hezbollah only one year prior to his assassination. Nasrallah, by contrast, sat at the helm of the organization for 32 years, during which it witnessed its golden era. Under his leadership, Hezbollah military operations forced Israel to end its occupation of Lebanon in May 2000. A 33-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 ended in what was at best a draw for the Israeli side, shattering the image it once enjoyed as an invincible military and greatly boosting the popularity of the Lebanese movement in the Arab world.
The assassination of Nasrallah is the culmination of a security-intelligence war waged by Israel that is unparalleled in recent history. A mass detonation of pager devices belonging to Hezbollah members left 12 people dead—including innocent civilians—and thousands injured. While Israeli leaders denied culpability, Lebanese and American officials have revealed that Israel was behind the late September operation.
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