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Global and regional leaders have on Saturday reacted with mixed feelings to the news of the death of longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike on Beirut.
Nasrallah is by far the most powerful figure to be targeted by Israel in weeks of clashes and exchanges of rocket fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border, prompting fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East.
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group confirmed that its leader and co-founder Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an air strike in Beirut the previous day as Israel bombarded the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
A statement from the group said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs” and vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine”.
The Lebanese population is sharply divided on the role Hezbollah plays in politics, with some 30 percent professing significant trust in the movement and others deeply resentful, wanting the nation to be free from sectarian conflict.
An Israeli military statement maintained that Nasrallah and other members of Hezbollah command were legitimate targets under international law.
The army also accused Nasrallah of having been behind the deaths of Israeli civilians and military personnel.
“During Hassan Nasrallah’s 32-year reign as the secretary-general of Hezbollah, he was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist activities,” the statement said.
“He was responsible for directing and executing terrorist attacks around the world in which civilians of various nationalities were murdered. Nasrallah was the central decision-maker and the strategic leader of the organisation.”
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant emphasised that Israel is not at war with the Lebanese people, saying Nasrallah had posed a threat to people everywhere. The Hezbollah chief “was the murderer of thousands of Israelis and foreign citizens. He was an immediate threat to the lives of thousands of Israelis and other citizens,” Gallant said in a statement. “To the people of Lebanon, I say: Our war is not with you. It’s time for change.”
Palestinian group Hamas said in a statement it mourned the death of Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah but added that his death would only strengthen the militant group’s resistance.
“Crimes and assassination by the occupation will only increase the determination and the insistence of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon to go forward with all their might, bravery and pride on the footsteps of the martyrs …,” Hamas said in a statement.
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime [of Israel]”.
“The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” state media reported Khamenei as saying in a statement after the Israeli army said it had killed Nasrallah.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, a Hezbollah ally in opposing Israel, vowed to continue their fight.
“The resistance will not be broken, and the Jihadist spirit of the Mujahideen brothers in Lebanon and on all fronts of support will grow stronger and bigger,” the group said in a statement.
Russia strongly condemns Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the foreign ministry said on Saturday, calling on Israel to stop hostilities in Lebanon.
“This forceful action is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East,” the ministry said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday called the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah a “measure of justice” for his decades-long reign of terror.
Biden noted that the operation to take out Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” Biden said in a statement.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered his condolences to Lebanon and Hezbollah, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said. “The President extended his heartfelt sympathies to the Lebanese government and the brotherly people of Lebanon over the civilian casualties resulting from the ongoing Israeli aggression,” WAFA said.
In a statement mourning Nasrallah, former Lebanese president Michel Aoun referred to “the dangers our country is witnessing as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression which requires rising to the highest level of national solidarity that protects and fortifies our unity because that is the true salvation”.
