Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah Lebanon, Killed in Israeli Attack

Hours after the Israeli army announced the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah group officially confirmed the death of its secretary-general in a statement. The group emphasized on Saturday, October 7, that 'the path of Hassan Nasrallah continues' and that they will continue their 'struggle' against Israel. The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had killed the secretary-general of Hezbollah during a military attack on Friday in the 'Dahiyeh' area, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Following the confirmation of Hassan Nasrallah's death, Israel stated that it would continue its operations to strike the remaining senior figures in the political leadership, military command, and to eliminate the group's weapons in Lebanon. Israeli Air Force fighters flew over points in Dahiyeh in Beirut and southern Lebanon throughout Saturday, with columns of smoke rising each time indicating bombings. Nasrallah, 64, had led Hezbollah for 32 years. He became the secretary-general of the group after the death of Abbas Musawi in an Israeli airstrike in February 1992. Hezbollah was established in the early 1980s as a militia group and gradually transformed into a political party controlling a large part of southern Lebanon. Since its inception, Hezbollah has carried out numerous operations against Israel, including a 34-day war in 2006, and began rocket and drone attacks on Israel to support Hamas one day after the extremist group's attack on Israeli territory. The United States, like Israel, considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization, while the European Union has placed its military wing on a blacklist but does not consider its political wing as terrorist. Hezbollah's political faction has representatives in the Lebanese parliament, with some holding ministerial positions in various government periods. Over the past year, alongside the Gaza war, Hezbollah fired more than 9,000 rockets at Israel, resulting in the deaths of 50 individuals, including 26 military and 24 civilian Israelis, as well as damage to public and private properties in Israel. However, fearing a Hezbollah attack on its northern cities, similar to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 15, Israel evacuated tens of thousands of residents from northern cities. On the morning of September 27 this year, due to intense public pressure and displaced persons, Israel officially added the safe return of people to their homes to the objectives of the ongoing war. Hours after the official announcement of the goal to safely return people to Israel, a series of operations attributed to Israel in Lebanon began with the explosion of Hezbollah's pager systems, continuing the next day with the explosion of radios, resulting in 39 deaths and thousands injured. On September 30, Israel also killed Ibrahim Aqeel, a senior commander of the 'Rizwan' unit, and 16 other commanders of this unit during their meeting in an underground tunnel of a building in Beirut. The Israeli army carried out its operation on Friday, October 6, for an airstrike on Hezbollah's main command headquarters under the name 'New Order'. Israeli media reported on the evening of October 6 that the army had received precise intelligence that Hassan Nasrallah, along with several other senior figures of the group like Ali Karaki, was at the mentioned headquarters in the underground tunnel of several buildings in Dahiyeh. Reports indicated that Yoav Galant, the defense minister, and General Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israeli army, ordered the air force commander, Tomer Bar, to carry out the bombing of the target with multiple fighter jets flying in the skies over Lebanon after obtaining a phone agreement from Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in New York. The timing of the attack was at 6:20 PM on Friday, just minutes after Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations General Assembly. According to Israeli media, the Prime Minister was aware that the air force operation was underway while delivering a speech at the General Assembly outlining his country's policy over the past year against Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Netanyahu warned Iran in his speech that if it attacked Israel, Israel would retaliate in Iran. Israeli media emphasized that Netanyahu's warning to Iran was to deter it from operations against Nasrallah. The Israeli army confirmed the death of Ali Karaki in the attack on Hezbollah's command headquarters, but Hezbollah did not mention Karaki's death in its statement confirming Nasrallah's death. Ali Karaki had survived a targeted attack by the Israeli army on a building in Dahiyeh the previous week. With the death of Hezbollah's secretary-general and senior command, there is still no news about the fate of Hashem Safi al-Din, the secretary of Hezbollah's executive council. Some unconfirmed reports on Friday night indicated the possibility of his presence with Hassan Nasrallah at the group's command headquarters. Israeli media speculated on Saturday that if Safi al-Din, a close relative of Nasrallah, is alive, the secretary-generalship of Hezbollah would be transferred to him, whom Israel considers 'a more radical figure'. There is still no concrete information about how many members of Hezbollah's political and military leadership were killed in the Friday attack. The Israeli army, in several statements on Friday night and Saturday morning, urged residents in specific buildings in 'Dahiyeh' to leave these areas because they contained 'deadly' and 'strategic' weapons, including shore-to-sea missiles. The Israeli army carried out its warning shortly after and bombed those buildings. Israeli attacks have created significant panic in Dahiyeh, increasing the number of displaced persons from this area. Prior to this, Israeli warnings in the preceding days had caused tens of thousands of residents from southern Lebanon to flee towards Beirut and northern parts of Lebanon. Thousands of people from Lebanon and Syrians who had sought refuge in Lebanon during the Syrian civil war fled towards Syria in the days before Nasrallah's death. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's rocket attacks on northern Israel continued one day after Nasrallah's death. On October 7, many rockets were fired mainly towards northern Israeli cities. Two days before Nasrallah's death, on October 4, Hezbollah launched its first attack on Tel Aviv with the 'Qader 1' ballistic missile to avenge the 'Mossad headquarters' for designing the explosions of Hezbollah's pagers. The Israeli army intercepted Hezbollah's missile. Additionally, the Houthis of Yemen fired a ballistic missile towards central Israel from a distance of 1800 kilometers on October 7, which the Israeli army reported intercepting. This was the third missile launched by the Houthis against Israel since September 25, and Israel has not yet responded to these three attacks.