Israeli Army Reports Death of Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, in Southern Beirut

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Israeli Army's Twitter account announced the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah Lebanon, in an attack by Israel on the group's headquarters in southern Beirut. The tweet stated that Nasrallah would no longer be able to 'terrorize the world.' According to Israeli Army spokesman Ali Karaki for Arab media, Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah's southern front, who had survived a previous Israeli operation, was also killed in the attack. This news was released hours after there was no information about the fate of the Hezbollah leader. The group, which is supported by the Islamic Republic, has not yet confirmed this news. According to the Israeli Army, the attack occurred while Hassan Nasrallah was meeting with several Hezbollah commanders. Reportedly, since a year after Nasrallah took over as Secretary General following the death of the previous leader, Abbas Mousavi, in early 1992, Hashem Safieddine was designated as a potential successor. However, unconfirmed reports suggest that Hashem Safieddine also participated in the secret meeting on Friday evening. Nasrallah, who had been in hiding for 18 years since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah over the group's attack on Israel and the abduction of the bodies of two Israeli officers, had conducted all his speeches from these hideouts. Yossi Cohen, former head of Mossad, had previously stated in media interviews in Israel that the country was aware of Nasrallah's hideouts and had refrained from targeting them until now, but this approach would change if the threat level from the group to Israel changed. Nasrallah had led Hezbollah, a paramilitary group and political party that controls a large part of southern Lebanon, for 32 years. This group, which receives open financial and military support from the Islamic Republic of Iran, is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States. However, the European Union has placed its military wing on the blacklist but does not consider its political wing to be terrorist. The political party Hezbollah also has representatives in the Lebanese parliament. Nasrallah had traveled to Iran multiple times and met with the Supreme Leader and other high-ranking officials of the Iranian government.