Hassan Nasrallah

• 1. Introduction

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  Hassan Nasrallah, the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, was buried in a secret location after his death, and his public funeral came only on the 23rd of February 2025. Estimates of the crowd that filled Beirut that day run from 450,000 to 1,400,000 people. That enormous gap in the numbers says something about the man. For more than three decades he led a Shia Islamist political party and militia, and almost nobody who encountered him stayed neutral. Some Lebanese called him a national hero. Others called him an agent of Iran. Many Syrians celebrated when news of his death spread. How did a cleric trained in seminaries come to command a militia that Israel fought for years? What did his supporters see in him, and what did his critics see? And why did a funeral for a man so closely watched become a statement in its own right?

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• 2. From Seminary to Command

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  Bourj Hammoud, an eastern suburb of Beirut, is where Hassan Nasrallah was born on the 31st of August 1960, the ninth of ten children. His father, Abdul Karim Nasrallah, came from the village of Al-Bazouriyah near Tyre and sold fruit and vegetables. The family was not especially religious, but the boy was drawn to theology. He attended the al-Najah school and later a public school in Sin el Fil, a mostly Christian neighbourhood.

  In 1975, when Nasrallah was 15, the Lebanese Civil War broke out and pushed the family back to their ancestral home in Bazourieh. He finished secondary school in Tyre, and there he briefly joined the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shia political group. He then studied at a Shia seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of the Iraqi scholar Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who had founded the Dawa movement in Najaf in the early 1960s.

  In 1976, at 16, Nasrallah travelled to Iraq and was admitted to al-Sadr's own seminary in Najaf. According to the account that has come down, al-Sadr said to him: "I scent in you the aroma of leadership; you are one of the Ansar followers of the Mahdi...". The training did not last. In 1978 Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq along with dozens of other Lebanese students, and by 1979 he was back in Lebanon. Saddam Hussein was then expelling many Shias, among them the future Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini and a man named Abbas Musawi. Al-Sadr was imprisoned, tortured and murdered, and he was executed in 1980.

  Back in Lebanon, Nasrallah studied and taught at the school run by Abbas al-Musawi, who led Amal. Amal then chose him as its political delegate in the Beqaa, which gave him a seat on its central political office. In 1982 he helped organise the group that became Hezbollah, formed at first to repel the Israeli invasion of Lebanon that year.

  In 1989 he travelled to Qom, in Iran, to continue his religious studies. Nasrallah held that Islam could answer any question about public or private life. He once put it this way: "Islam is not a simple religion including only prayers and praises, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity." He returned to Lebanon in 1991.

  The next year, an Israeli airstrike killed Musawi, and Nasrallah took over as Hezbollah's leader. Under him, the group acquired rockets with a longer range, and these could reach northern Israel even while Israel occupied the south of Lebanon. Israel's Operation Accountability in 1993 destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure. It ended with an understanding that Israel would stop attacking Lebanon and Hezbollah would stop firing on northern Israel. After a short pause the fighting resumed, and in 1996 Israel launched Operation Grapes of Wrath. It blockaded important Lebanese harbour cities and bombed a Syrian military base. Sixteen days later the Israeli-Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding was agreed, with the same trade of promises, and once again the calm did not last.

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• 3. A Father's Grief

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  On the night of the 12th of September 1997, four Hezbollah fighters died in an Israeli ambush near Mlikh. One of them was eighteen-year-old Muhammad Hadi, the eldest son of Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah had married Fatima Mustafa Yassine in 1978, and the couple had four sons and one daughter. A simultaneous airstrike north of the security zone killed five Lebanese soldiers and a woman. The attacks were seen as a response to an operation a week earlier in which twelve Israeli commandos had been killed.

  When the news reached him, Nasrallah was quoted as saying: "I am proud to be the father of one of the martyrs." Then came a harder moment. The Israeli military released photographs of the dead young man's body and offered to exchange it for the remains of those killed in the earlier ambush. Nasrallah answered: "Keep it. We have many more men like Hadi ready to offer themselves to the struggle."

  A seven-day mourning period followed in south Beirut, and an estimated two hundred thousand people attended each day. Nasrallah also visited other grieving families. Scholars later described his reaction as a media event that "served to bring Lebanese nationals together as a collective." They also wrote that it cast him as "an extraordinarily selfless leader and an organic leader with deep roots in popular culture." Before that September, his public image had been that of a militant cleric. After it, he was something closer to a figure the whole country watched. His son's remains, however, would stay out of Lebanese hands for years.

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• 4. Ending the Occupation

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  By the late 1990s, a question was being argued openly in Israel: was keeping forces in southern Lebanon working at all? The so-called security zone plainly could not stop Hezbollah rockets from reaching Israeli territory. After heavy Israeli casualties in the south, some politicians argued that the conflict would end only if Israel left. In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak withdrew Israeli forces from Lebanon after an occupation that had lasted 18 years.

  The South Lebanon Army, which Israel had supported, was quickly overrun by Hezbollah. Some of its members escaped into Israel, but many were captured. Lebanon now marks the day of the withdrawal as a public holiday. Nasrallah was credited across Lebanon and the Arab world with ending the occupation, and that credit lifted Hezbollah's political standing at home.

  In 2004 he played a major role in a complicated prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah. Hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners were freed. Many human remains came back to Lebanon, including those of his own son. Across the Arab world the deal was described as a magnificent victory, and Nasrallah was personally praised for it.

  His dealmaking reached across sectarian lines as well. He negotiated a ten-point Memorandum of Understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by Michel Aoun, a former premier and a Maronite Christian. Under it, Hezbollah agreed to disarm once its prisoners were returned and the occupied Shebaa Farms were recovered. It also accepted the pardon and return of fugitive South Lebanon Army members. In exchange, the movement agreed to work on reforming the confessional electoral system toward one man, one vote.

  Aoun laid out the arrangement in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in July 2006. He argued that the political process was effectively disarming Hezbollah without the loss of lives that unnecessary wars would cost. That same month, a border ambush set off exactly such a war.

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• 5. The War of 2006

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  Three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were abducted when Hezbollah ambushed a unit inside Israeli territory, and the 2006 Lebanon War began. Israeli bombardments aimed at Hezbollah damaged many parts of Beirut, especially the poorer, largely Shiite South Beirut that Hezbollah controls. On the 3rd of August 2006, Nasrallah answered in a televised address. "If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," he said.

  The backlash from Arab capitals was fierce. On the 14th of July, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned against "the region being dragged into adventurism that does not serve Arab interests." Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called the attacks "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts."

  Criticism also came from inside Lebanon. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party and the most prominent Druze leader, said: "Great, so he's a hero. But I'd like to challenge this heroism of his. I have the right to challenge it, because my country is in flames." He added that Nasrallah was willing to let the capital burn while he haggled over terms of surrender.

  Yet the closing speech of the war did the opposite of what these critics wanted. Dina Matar, a scholar of Arab media, said it fixed Nasrallah's image as a charismatic leader in the media age. He told his audience: "Our victory is not the victory of the party... it is not the victory of a party or a community; rather it is a victory for Lebanon." The speech made him a symbol of pan-Arab national heroism.

  Money followed the speech. The journalist Amir Taheri wrote that a flow of dollars from Iran, which he called the Green Flood, reached Beirut by way of Syria. He said anyone who could prove war damage to a home received $12,000, a large sum in a ruined country.

  On the 27th of August 2006, Nasrallah gave an interview to Lebanon's New TV that complicated the victory story. Asked whether he would have ordered the capture of the soldiers had he known the result, he said: "I say no, absolutely not." Two years later, a rumour about his health would test his public image in a different way.

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• 6. Poison, Syria and Labels

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  On the 15th of October 2008, the Iraqi news source Almalaf reported that Nasrallah had been poisoned the week before. It said Iranian doctors, who arrived late on a Sunday night on what appeared to be a special military flight, had saved his life. Almalaf's sources suspected an Israeli assassination attempt. Hezbollah denied it. Al-Hajj Hassan, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, said: "This is a lie and a fabrication."

  On the 25th of October, Nasrallah appeared on Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel to deny the story himself. He called it part of a psychological war meant to suggest the party suffered from internal disputes. Websites spreading such claims, he said, were all run from "that same dark room." The group had first considered a written denial, he explained, but chose a televised interview because news agencies had picked the story up.

  Questions about the leadership circulated in those years as well. A London-based newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, claimed that control of the military wing had passed from Nasrallah to his deputy, Na'im Qasim, in August 2007. Hezbollah rejected the claim as an attempt to weaken the movement's popularity. In October 2008, his cousin Hashem Safieddine was named to succeed him as secretary-general.

  On the 25th of May 2013, Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah was fighting in the Syrian civil war on the side of the government of Bashar al-Assad. He confirmed that fighters were in the strategic town of Qusair, and he warned: "If Syria falls in the hands of America, Israel and the takfiris, the people of our region will go into a dark period." Several figures and organisations accused him of responsibility for massacres of Sunni Muslims. In July 2014, his nephew was killed fighting in Syria. He also promoted the Axis of Resistance, an informal coalition of Iran-backed groups opposed to Israel and the United States.

  The international labels attached to his movement varied widely. The United States, other nations and the European Union designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, wholly or in part. The Arab League did so in 2016 but, as of 2024, no longer views it that way. Russia rejected the label in 2015, and China remained neutral as of 2012. At home, widespread protests in October 2019 over a deepening financial and economic crisis called for government leaders to resign, Nasrallah among them.

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• 7. Hero and Provocateur

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  Supporters and followers called him al-Sayyid Hassan. The honorific Sayyid denotes a claim of descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali. For ending the occupation, he became a national hero in Lebanon. An Arab politician quoted in a New York Times article called him the most powerful man in the Middle East and the only Arab leader who actually does what he says he will do. Al Jazeera compared him to Yasser Arafat, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. The analyst Amal Saad-Ghorayeb described him as passionate but also plainspoken and practical.

  Artists took up his story. During the 2006 war, two songs about him appeared with opposite views, one in the West Bank and Gaza and one in Israel. The Lebanese singer Alaa Zalzali composed a tribute in 2007 called "Ya Nasrallah," and the Lebanese Christian singer Julia Boutros recorded "Ahebba'i," inspired by his televised message to fighters in the south.

  Many Lebanese were unmoved, especially Sunni Muslims and Christians. They saw his close ties to Tehran as proof that Iranian goals came before Lebanese ones. They pointed out that Hezbollah was implicated in assassinations of critics and politicians from the March 14 Alliance, and some called the group a state within a state. Among anti-Assad Syrians, particularly in opposition-held areas such as Idlib, he was despised as complicit in the regime's atrocities.

  His own words fed the controversy. A video posted by Saudi-owned Al Arabiya shows him around 1988 calling for an Islamic state in which Lebanon would be part of a greater Islamic republic under Khomeini. In 2003 he told The New Yorker that no one could go to war on behalf of the Palestinians. In 2004 he said he would not sabotage a two-state settlement, which he called a Palestinian matter. Yet he also called for the end of Israel, and on the 2nd of August 2013 he said Israel "is a cancer that must be eradicated."

  His language about Jews drew sharper fire. Watchdog groups read a 1998 Ashura speech as broadly antisemitic, and a 2001 speech aired on Al-Manar contained remarks about Jews that critics condemned. In some cases, attribution is disputed. Charles Glass doubted a quote that Saad-Ghorayeb attributed to him, noting that her sources pointed to an interview with a Hezbollah parliamentarian. Glass also doubted a 2002 newspaper account, though the speech in question is published on Hezbollah's website. In 2009, when presenting the party's new political manifesto, Nasrallah said: "Our problem with the Israelis is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers."

  After the September 11 attacks he said his movement condemned the killing of the World Trade Center workers and did not endorse the methods of Osama bin Laden. After the Hamas-led attacks of the 7th of October 2023, he called them a heroic operation. Hezbollah's missile and drone attacks on northern Israel began immediately afterward, and he said they were in solidarity with the Palestinians.

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• 8. The Strike on Dahieh

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  On the evening of the 27th of September 2024, the Israeli Air Force struck Hezbollah's headquarters in Dahieh, reportedly targeting Nasrallah. At least six people were killed and over 90 were injured, with several missing. The next day, the Israel Defense Forces said he had died in the strike. Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities later confirmed it, and his body was found under the rubble.

  Accounts of how he died differ. One version says he died from toxic fumes inhaled under the rubble and had no physical wounds. Other sources suggested blunt force trauma from the attack. A report that his daughter Zainab had also died in an airstrike turned out to be false. His son-in-law Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir was killed by an Israeli strike on the 2nd of October 2024, five days later. His mother, Hajja Umm Hassan, had died earlier that year, according to Hezbollah media on the 25th of May 2024.

  Hashem Safieddine was assumed to be the successor, but Israeli airstrikes in Dahieh killed him as well. Naim Qassem was elected secretary-general on the 29th of October 2024. The Economist wrote that the loss would reshape Lebanon and the Middle East in ways unthinkable a year earlier. It said the next leader would face the most precarious moment in the organisation's history, and that the Lebanese public saw the group as humiliated and resented its domination of politics.

  The funeral for Nasrallah and Safieddine took place after a ceasefire and a partial Israeli withdrawal. The main event was held at the Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium, with many attendees waving Hezbollah flags and carrying portraits of the two men. Senior official Ali Daamoush claimed about 800 personalities from 65 countries would attend. Representatives from Iran, Iraq and Yemen came, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the dead leaders "two heroes of the resistance."

  The funeral began at 13:00 local time. Hours earlier, Israeli aircraft struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon and flew low over Beirut. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that the planes were over the stadium during the service to "convey a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel - that will be the end of them." Nasrallah was then buried in Beirut. Safieddine was buried in his hometown of Deir Qanoun an-Naher in southern Lebanon.

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