War Archive 2023 10/08 Monitoring the Israel and Lebanon War

[Krishna with Flute]

Hopefully the Arab countries will be united against Israel because of Israhell's transgressions.

Saudi and UAE's relations are flourishing with Israel. Which other countries will ally against Israel which can make impact. After assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Iran is also gone on Back foot. No Islamic country has guts to mess with Israel.

 

[Krishna with Flute]

RAW operative?

R&AW is not that capable. Nobody should give credit to R & AW which it do not deserve.

 

[Saif]

Israel strikes Hezbollah bastion in Beirut

Israel conducted a wave of air strikes on the south of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Friday that it said targeted Hezbollah's headquarters, warning of more to come as it told civilians to leave the densely populated neighbourhood.

www.newagebd.net

Israel strikes Hezbollah bastion in Beirut
Agence France-Presse. Beirut, Lebanon 28 September, 2024, 04:50

Rescuers stand on the rubble of a builiding destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27, 2024. | AFP Photo

Israel conducted a wave of air strikes on the south of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Friday that it said targeted Hezbollah's headquarters, warning of more to come as it told civilians to leave the densely populated neighbourhood.

Friday's strikes sent huge clouds of smoke soaring above the area and were heard across the Mediterranean city, sparking panic in the residential area that has been the Iran-backed movement's main bastion for decades.

They were by far the fiercest strikes to hit Beirut since Israel shifted its focus from the war in Gaza to Lebanon this week, pounding Hezbollah strongholds around the country and killing hundreds of people.

Hezbollah started fighting Israeli troops along the Lebanon border a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in an address to world leaders on Friday that there would be no-let up in the battle against Hezbollah until Israel's northern border was secured.

‘Oh my God, what strikes. I felt like the building was going to collapse on top of me,’ said Abir Hammoud, a teacher in her 40s who lives in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Ahmad Ahmad, in his 60s, said he fled his house in the southern suburbs after the strikes, which he said felt ‘like an earthquake’.

Nasrallah 'fine'

A source close to Hezbollah said the strikes levelled six buildings, and according to a preliminary toll, six people were killed and 91 wounded.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the strike targeted ‘the central headquarters’ of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the city.

Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike, though the source close to Hezbollah said he was ‘fine’.

Nasrallah enjoys cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters, is equipped with a formidable arsenal far bigger and more modern than the national army's, and holds sway over Lebanon's institutions.

He has rarely been seen in public since his movement fought a devastating 2006 war with Israel, living in hiding to avoid assassination.

After the Beirut strikes, Hezbollah said it had fired more rockets into Israel ‘in defence of Lebanon and its people’.

The Israeli military said a Hezbollah rocket had hit a house and a car in the northern city of Safed but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Rear Admiral Hagari warned Israel would not allow Hezbollah backer Iran to use Beirut airport to transfer weapons to its ally.

He also said the military would attack ‘in a short while’ three buildings Hezbollah was using to store weapons, calling on residents to evacuate them.

‘The force of the explosions as a result of the missiles which are under the buildings may cause damage to the buildings and even their collapse,’ Hagari said.

Deadliest in a generation

The UN has repeatedly condemned the sharp escalation of violence in Lebanon.

‘We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many express their fear that this is just the beginning,’ the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Imran Riza, said.

In Israel, too, many were weary of the violence.

‘It is incredibly exhausting to be in this situation. We don't really know what's going to happen, there’s talk of a ground offensive or a major operation,’ said Lital Shmuelovich, a physiotherapy student.

In New York, Netanyahu also addressed the war in Gaza, saying that Israel's military would continue to fight Hamas until it achieved ‘total victory’.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink of all-out war.

But despite months of mediation efforts, a Gaza ceasefire remains elusive.

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Change the rules

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of wider turmoil in the Middle East, with Iran-backed militants across the region vowing to keep up their fight with Israel.

Netanyahu took aim at Iran in his UN General Assembly address, saying: ‘I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you.’

He added: ‘There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that's true of the entire Middle East.’

Analysts have said Iran would try to resist being dragged into the conflict.

But following the Beirut strikes, Iran's embassy in Lebanon said: ‘This reprehensible crime... represents a dangerous escalation that changes the rules of the game.’

Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, later condemned the strikes, branding them a ‘flagrant war crime’.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 92 in Lebanon in past 24 hours: ministry

Israeli strikes have killed 92 people in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said late Thursday. Overall it said 153 people were injured.

en.prothomalo.com

Israeli strikes kill 92 in Lebanon in past 24 hours: ministry
AFP
Published: 27 Sep 2024, 12: 39

This picture shows the destruction in a area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon's town of Saksakiyeh, on 26 September, 2024. AFP

Israeli strikes have killed 92 people in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said late Thursday.

The ministry said in a series of statements that Israeli raids killed 40 people in towns and villages in the south, 48 in two eastern regions and four in the east of central Mount Lebanon Governorate.

Overall it said 153 people were injured.​

 

[Saif]

Israel kills Hezbollah chief in Beirut

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Lebanese movement said Saturday, dealing a seismic blow to the Iran-backed group that has been engaged in a year of...

www.newagebd.net

Israel kills Hezbollah chief in Beirut
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 28 September, 2024, 15:51

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses a ceremony on the eve of the tenth day of the mourning period of Muharram, which marks the day of Ashura, in a southern suburb of the capital Beirut on October 11, 2016. | AFP file photo.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, the Lebanese movement said Saturday, dealing a seismic blow to the Iran-backed group that has been engaged in a year of cross-border hostilities with Israel.

Hezbollah’s statement came after Israel’s military said it had killed Nasrallah in an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, in a move that could destabilise Lebanon as a whole.

Iran, which arms and finances Hezbollah, said a senior member of its Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in the same strike.

‘Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, has joined his great, immortal martyr comrades whom he led for about 30 years,’ Hezbollah said in a statement.

It said he was killed with other group members ‘following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs’ of Beirut.

AFP journalists heard a passer-by scream ‘Oh my God!’, and women weeping in the streets after Hezbollah announced the news.

Rarely seen in public, Nasrallah had enjoyed cult status among his Shiite Muslim supporters, and was the only man in Lebanon with the power to wage war or make peace.

‘Hassan Nasrallah is dead,’ Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani announced earlier on X.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, in a televised briefing, called Nasrallah ‘one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time’ and added: ‘His elimination makes the world a safer place.’

In Tehran, posters of Nasrallah were erected bearing the slogan ‘Hezbollah is alive’.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X that Nasrallah’s ‘sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing’.

Earlier, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned what he called Israel’s ‘short-sighted and stupid policy’, without referring to Nasrallah’s fate.

Hezbollah in Lebanon began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas on Saturday condemned Nasrallah’s killing as a ‘cowardly terrorist act’.

Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as cross-border exchanges escalated over the past week.

Most of those Lebanese deaths came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.

The United Nations said around 118,000 people have been displaced.

Israel’s military said ‘most of the senior leaders of Hezbollah have been eliminated’, and added that it had hit more than 140 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since Friday night.

The military continued to pound Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold into Saturday, sending panicked families fleeing.

An AFP photographer said dozens of buildings have been destroyed.

The blasts that rocked southern Beirut late Friday were the fiercest there since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006.

In the Haret Hreik neighbourhood, an AFP photographer saw craters up to five metres (16 feet) wide.

Middle East expert James Dorsey described Friday’s attack as ‘very sophisticated’, adding it ‘demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah’.

Shoshani said Saturday there was ‘still a way to go’ in Israel’s fight against Hezbollah, adding that it was believed to have ‘tens of thousands of rockets’.

Some Israelis hailed the reports of Nasrallah’s death.

‘Absolutely fantastic news, it should have been done a long time ago,’ said David Shalev in Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv.

He said it sent a clear message to Israel’s foes: ‘Don’t screw with us.’

After Friday’s heavy strikes, Israel issued fresh warnings for people to leave part of the densely populated southern Dahiyeh suburbs before dawn.

Hundreds of families spent the night outside, in central Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square or along the seaside boardwalk.

‘I didn’t even pack any clothes, I never thought we would leave like this and suddenly find ourselves on the streets,’ south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, told AFP.

Israel’s military also announced strikes Saturday on the Bekaa area in eastern Lebanon and on the south.

It said a surface-to-surface missile from Lebanon fell in an open area in central Israel and another was intercepted in the north.

Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on Kabri in northern Israel, and later said it launched ‘a salvo of Fadi-3 rockets’ towards the Ramat David airbase in northern Israel, which it has targeted before.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah until the northern border with Lebanon is secured.

‘Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safe,’ he said.

Israel has raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.

‘We must avoid a regional war at all costs,’ UN chief Antonio Guterres told world leaders, again appealing for a ceasefire.

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon and bringing the region back from the brink.

The Lebanon violence has raised fears of a wider spillover, with Iran-backed militants across the Middle East vowing to keep fighting Israel.

Netanyahu addressed Iran in his UN General Assembly speech, saying: ‘If you strike us, we will strike you.’

He added: ‘There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach.’

Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported General Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Guards’ operations, died in the strike that killed Nasrallah.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Nasrallahs successor has already taken command.

Iran will move a chess piece forward soon, toward a checkmate move.

There’s no way in hell Iran will accept anything else.

It’s all or nothing! Killing leaders of the resistance willy nilly is not going to save Israel.

This is just Israeli desperation

 

[Lulldapull]

Saudi and UAE's relations are flourishing with Israel. Which other countries will ally against Israel which can make impact. After assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Iran is also gone on Back foot. No Islamic country has guts to mess with Israel.

Iran has taken a step back/ time out and is analyzing the evolving chess board. Fresh eyes and younger minds in the IRGC are giving it a good look over, a new war plan being formulated.

Iran could pull yet another Oct 7th any moment.......but a much bigger/ far more sinister event this time around.

This is not a religious war bhai.......This is just Iran doing what it always does. Fukks with anyone standing in its way. Doesn't matter who or why or how.

 

[Saif]

Nasrallahs successor has already taken command.

Iran will move a chess piece forward soon, toward a checkmate move.

There’s no way in hell Iran will accept anything else.

It’s all or nothing! Killing leaders of the resistance willy nilly is not going to save Israel.

This is just Israeli desperation

The brutal killing of Hezbollah chief is just the beginning of the end for Israel. I am sure the Iranians and Yemenis will put an end to the pathetic shitty life of Israel.

 

[Krishna with Flute]

Iran has taken a step back/ time out and is analyzing the evolving chess board. Fresh eyes and younger minds in the IRGC are giving it a good look over, a new war plan being formulated.

Iran could pull yet another Oct 7th any moment.......but a much bigger/ far more sinister event this time around.

This is not a religious war bhai.......This is just Iran doing what it always does. Fukks with anyone standing in its way. Doesn't matter who or why or how.

What you say is very correct but verses from Holi books are invoked for political purpose whenever it is required. Islamic brotherhood is one such Fraud . They fight among themselves and unite on the name of Islamic brotherhood and opposes Israel and India by invoking the verses from Holi book.

 

[Saif]

What will Israel, Iran, Hezbollah do next?

The last 72 hours in the Middle East – in which Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and continued to bombard the Iran-backed group across Lebanon – have once more ratcheted up fears that this long-running conflict could spiral into a wider regional war. Here’s what we know so far and...

www.thedailystar.net

NASRALLAH’S KILLING IN ISRAELI STRIKES
What will Israel, Iran, Hezbollah do next?

The last 72 hours in the Middle East – in which Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and continued to bombard the Iran-backed group across Lebanon – have once more ratcheted up fears that this long-running conflict could spiral into a wider regional war. Here's what we know so far and where things might go next.

ESCALATING CONFLICT

Israel has pounded what it says are Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and elsewhere in the country on Friday, Saturday and yesterday, including the attack on the capital's southern suburbs that killed Nasrallah and another top figure Nabil Kaouk.

Lebanese civilians say they cannot heed warnings from Israel's military to avoid places where Hezbollah is operating, because the group is highly secretive.

The US sees the possibility of a limited ground incursion into Lebanon as Israel moves forces to its northern border, CNN reported earlier. But the US officials stressed that Israel does not appear to have made a decision on whether to carry out a ground incursion.

WHAT WILL HEZBOLLAH OR IRAN DO?

In the wake of Nasrallah's killing – and the attack on pagers and walkie-talkies – Hezbollah's remaining leaders are likely to be assessing how to meet, communicate and respond. But analysts say the setbacks faced by the group are unlikely to leave it completely weakened.

"Hezbollah has taken the biggest blow to its military infrastructure since its inception," said Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and author of "Hezbollahland."

The group, however, still retains skilled commanders, as well as many of its most powerful assets – including precision-guided missiles and long-range missiles that could inflict significant damage to Israel's military and civilian infrastructure, said Ghaddar.

But the latest development raises the potential for a shift. Hezbollah will almost certainly respond, according to Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence official.

Another key question is the extent to which Iran could get involved.

Iran's embassy in Lebanon in a social media post Friday called Nasrallah's killing a "serious escalation that changes the rules of the game," and said its perpetrator "will be punished and disciplined appropriately."

The Iranian envoy to the UN on Saturday also requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council to "condemn Israel's actions in the strongest possible terms."

Pointing to the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Hezbollah, and Israel and Iran, former US State Department Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller told CNN: "None of these wars of attrition are going to end any time soon… there are no transformative, diplomatic Hollywood endings."​

 

[Lulldapull]

The issue here is the incessant backing of Israel by the west against Iran. Iran will not relent and fight the west for its share and take. This ain’t no religious war by any stretch of the imagination. Irani mulla are hardcore Persian nationalists.

It’s Iran vs the west for the control of the region. Plain n simple.

We need to watch out for which country next Iran will take over now. Is it Sudan? Or is it Ethiopia? Or is it Bahrain? Or is it goin be Afghanistan?

 

[Saif]

Several Bangladeshis missing, hurt in Lebanon

Several Bangladesh nationals living in Lebanon reportedly remained missing while many others became injured as Israel continued attacks on the East Asian country...

www.newagebd.net

Several Bangladeshis missing, hurt in Lebanon
Rashad Ahamad 29 September, 2024, 23:48

Several Bangladesh nationals living in Lebanon reportedly remained missing while many others became injured as Israel continued attacks on the East Asian country that killed hundreds of people and compelled millions to flee their homes amid air strikes that were intensified since September 23.

The panicked migrants who left the high-risk zones and took shelter on roads, mosques, makeshift centres, and other open spaces were passing inhuman life amid the crisis for food and drinking water.

Stranded migrants complained that they were not getting any support from the Bangladesh embassy in Beirut though the embassy, in an emergency notice, asked them to contact over the phone.

Shahriar Ashik Joy, son-in-law of a Lebanon migrant Razia Sultana, said that Razia remained missing since Friday.

He said that Razia, a resident of Hularhat in Pirojpur, migrated from Bangladesh 20 years ago and lastly lived in Dahieh.

‘On Friday morning, she talked to me but we could not reach her after that time. I heard from many that Dahieh area was demolished by airstrikes,’ he said and added that that they were not sure about what exactly happened to Razia.

He said that Delwar Hossain from Noakhali, now a hotel worker in the Navatia area in Beirut, also remained missing for the past seven days.

Emran Hossain Shovan, a Bangladeshi migrant in Lebanon, said that he had left the Dahieh area and taken shelter in a centre located five kilometres away from his place of living.

He said that his friend Shahab Uddin, who had been living near Beirut, also remained missing.

Md Firuz Dakua, another Bangladeshi migrant in Lebanon and the president of Probashi Odhikar Parishad in Lebanon, said that relatives of many migrants alleged that their relatives remained missing in Lebanon while some others sustained injuries in the strikes.

He said that at least five critically injured Bangladeshi workers were undergoing treatment at a local hospital though taking treatment in Lebanon was a challenging issue now.

Migrants said that Rehana Begum from Narsingdi and Abdul Mottalib from Feni were undergoing treatment at Hadat Central Hospital since they were injured in an attack on Friday.

Migrant workers said that there was no report of the death of Bangladeshi migrants so far.

They alleged that the embassy in Beirut remained uncaring about the humanitarian crisis of the migrants.

They, however, said that some humanitarian organisations and individuals came forward to help the affected people.

They demanded to the embassy to evaluate the situation like some other countries that had already relocated their workers to safe zones.

Neither the Bangladesh ambassador to Lebanon nor the first secretary (labour) there could be reached for comments over the telephone.

However, ambassador Javed Tanveer Khan in a video message on early Sunday asked Bangladeshi migrants to contact them over the embassy’s helpline and hotline numbers for any sort of help.

He said that the embassy informed the current situation to their Dhaka office and was trying to stand by the migrants.

He advised Bangladeshis staying there to stand by others and face the situation with courage and patience.

The south and east parts of Beirut are the most unrest areas and the authorities asked migrants to take shelter at safe zones.

The Bangladesh embassy in Beirut on Friday, in an emergency notice, advised the Bangladeshis in Lebanon to stay in safe areas.

‘In the given situation, the Bangladeshis who are still living in Dahieh or adjacent areas are advised to leave the area for northern Beirut or any other safe area,’ the notice said.

The embassy opened emergency phone numbers and asked Bangladeshi migrants to call for support. The phone numbers are 71217139 (embassy’s front desk), 70635278 (hotline), 81744207 (helpline). They were also asked to communicate through the Beirut mission’s email ‘mailto: Beirut.mission@mofa.gov.bd’.

The migrants, however, alleged that nobody in the embassy responded to their calls over the telephone.

According to the media reports, at least 700 people, including dozens of children, were killed since Israel intensified a bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23.

It is estimated that over one lakh people now work in Lebanon, mostly in garment factories, hotels, hospitals and households.

According to Bangladesh’s Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training statistics, at least 267,364 Bangladeshis migrated to the country since 2002. Of them, 61,786 migrated since 2015.

Migrants estimated that over one lakh people were now working in the West Asian country.​

 

[Saif]

Is Hezbollah losing the war against Israel?

Dispelling speculations the Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group, Hezbollah, has admitted that their supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed in Friday evening in a massive Israeli air attack in Southern Beirut. Israeli Defence Force (IDF) also claimed that in the same airstrike it killed A

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Is Hezbollah losing the war against Israel?
SYED FATTAHUL ALIM
Published :
Sep 29, 2024 21:32
Updated :
Sep 29, 2024 21:32

Dispelling speculations the Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group, Hezbollah, has admitted that their supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed in Friday evening in a massive Israeli air attack in Southern Beirut. Israeli Defence Force (IDF) also claimed that in the same airstrike it killed Ali Karki, commander of Hezbollah's southern front as well as other Hezbollah commanders. Meanwhile, other senior Hezbollah leaders have been killed in Israeli attacks. With the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah as a political party, virtually the group's top leadership has been decimated. Definitely it's a huge blow to Hezbollah as it is now facing a leadership vacuum and the remaining leadership is perhaps in disarray. With Hezbollah thus put on the back foot, it's definitely a turning point for Israel, which saw no significant success in its war against Palestinian resistance led by the Hamas militants in Gaza. For Hezbollah it is obviously an hour of reckoning when Israel is mercilessly continuing its bombing campaign against it in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed anti-Israel resistant group, a formidable military force of the region, has suffered a series of reversals over a fortnight. September 17's explosions of pagers and other radio devices had already hit Hezbollah hard, a fact Hassan Nasrallah himself acknowledged in his speech after the incident as saying that it dealt a severe blow to the organisation. The pager attacks obviously disrupted the internal communication network of the militant group. Though the present leadership of the organisation has expressed its defiance and determination to continue the fight against Israel to support its comrades, the Hamas fighters in Gaza, question remains about the morale, quality of leadership and level of coordination within the organisation. The pager attacks followed by serial assassination of other senior Hezbollah leaders are a clear indication of the fact that Israel knows too much about Hezbollah so much so that the movement and its leadership are constantly under Israel's scanner. No doubt the militant organisation's security system has been severely compromised.

So, what is going to happen next? Will Israel take full advantage of this security flaw of Hezbollah to launch a full-scale ground offensive in Lebanon as it did it in Gaza about a year ago? Well, mobilisation of Israeli forces on Lebanon's southern border may be indicative of an imminent offensive. There is no doubt that Netanyahu, who successfully took out Hassan Nasrallah and his close comrades one by one, spruced up his image significantly, following a year-long Gaza debacle. The Israeli public is now expecting that Netanyahu could finally give them a victory that evaded them so far in Gaza. However, if Israel remembers the history of its past ground invasions in Lebanon, it will have to think twice. Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, for instance, was initially a big success. Israel's army swept through Beirut, killed tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians and drove out the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Lebanon. There was no Hezbollah then. But Israeli occupation of Lebanon created the Hezbollah, from Shi'ite Amal movement. After splitting from Amal, Hassan Nasrallah and his associates first formed Islamic Amal, and in 1985 established Hezbollah with its stated objective of destroying Israel. He became the top leader of this organisation in 1992 at the age of 32 after the assassination of its top leader Abbas al-Musawiin in an Israeli helicopter strike.

Born in 1960 as the eldest of the nine children to Abdul Karim, who owned a small green grocery shop in Beirut's eastern Bourj Hammoud neigbourhood, Hassan Nasrallah was naturally drawn towards radical movements as Lebanon descended into a civil war in 1975.

After assuming Abbas al-Musawi's mantle as Hezbollah's top leader, he has been running the resistance group for 32 years. And the resistance war he started against the Israeli occupation forces in Lebanon actually forced Israel to withdraw its troops in 2000 from Southern Lebanon.

Other than carrying out blitzkriegs to win quick victory, Israel's capacity for sustaining long resistance of a hostile population is very limited as it has already been proved in Gaza. Killing civilians by air strikes is one thing, maintaining control over an occupied territory is quite another matter. Moreover, in consequence of the Gaza war and Hezbollah's year-long war of attrition against Israel, the economy of this Zionist state is already in a shambles. It is only through constant replenishment of depleted military arsenal of the Zionist state mainly by the US and its European allies that Israel can still continue the war against the Hamas and Hezbollah. From that point of view, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Hamas of Gaza are not just fighting Israel. In truth, they are fighting the collective West under the leadership of the USA where Israel is a client state. The question is how long can the West continue this support for Israel, which has already lost its acceptability globally, especially for committing genocide in Gaza? Along with Israel, the collective West, too, has lost its moral high ground as the champion of human rights, democracy and other great values they claim they stand for. Not only morally, the US and its Western allies are on the wane also economically. In that case, Israel's continued existence as an apartheid, settler-colonial power backed by the decaying, decadent West is not sustainable in the long run. So, the successful assassinations of the top Hezbollah leadership by Israeli airstrikes do not mean the end of Hezbollah; nor do those signify the turn of the tide for Israel.

Israel might have won a battle against Hezbollah, but it is essentially fighting a losing war.​

 

[Saif]

Justice or assassination: How world leaders react to killing of Nasrallah

World leaders warned of potential repercussions on Saturday after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on a suburb of Beirut.

en.prothomalo.com

Justice or assassination: How world leaders react to killing of Nasrallah
Published: 29 Sep 2024, 08: 31

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah File photo

World leaders warned of potential repercussions on Saturday after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on a suburb of Beirut.

The killing of the Iran-backed group's chief has intensified fears of all-out war in the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden welcomed "a measure of justice".

Iran

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned Israel that Nasrallah's death would "bring about their destruction", Iran's ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The foreign ministry of Iran, which finances and arms Hezbollah, said Nasrallah's work will continue after his death. "His sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing," spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of public mourning.

United States

Biden said Nasrallah's death was "a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians".

Washington supports Israel's right to defend itself against "Iranian-supported terrorist groups" and the "defence posture" of US forces in the region would be "further enhanced", Biden added in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Nasrallah was "a terrorist with American blood on his hands" and said she would "always support Israel's right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis."

Leading Republicans in the House of Representatives also welcomed the end of a "reign of bloodshed, oppression, and terror" by "one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet".

Russia

Russia's foreign ministry said "we decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel" and urged it to "immediately cease military action" in Lebanon.

Israel would "bear full responsibility" for the "tragic" consequences the killing could bring to the region, the ministry added in a statement.

Germany

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told ARD television that the killing "threatens destabilisation for the whole of Lebanon", which "is in no way in Israel's security interest".

Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Nasrallah as "the leader of a terrorist organization that attacked and killed innocent civilians, causing immense suffering across the region".

But he called for more to be done to protect civilians in the conflict, adding: "We urge calm and restraint during this critical time."

Britain

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that he had spoken with the Lebanese premier.

"We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people," he said.

France

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot demanded Israel "immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon" and said it was opposed to any ground operation in the country.

France also "calls on other actors, notably Hezbollah and Iran, to abstain from any action that could lead to additional destabilisation and regional conflagration", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

United Nations

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut in the last 24 hours".

Hamas

Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war in Gaza that drew in fellow Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah, called Nasrallah's killing "a cowardly terrorist act".

"We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings," Hamas said in a statement.

Palestinian Authority

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas offered his "deep condolences" to Lebanon for the deaths of Nasrallah and civilians, who "fell as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression", according to a statement from his office.

Huthis

The Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, who have been firing on ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas, said in a statement that Nasrallah's killing "will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of resolve" against Israel, with their leader vowing Nasrallah's death "will not be in vain".

Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country maintains diplomatic relations with Israel but who has been a sharp critic of its offensive in Gaza, said on X that Lebanon was being subjected to a "genocide", without referring directly to Nasrallah.

Cuba

In a post on X, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the killing a "cowardly targeted assassination" that "seriously threatens regional and global peace and security, for which Israel bears full responsibility with the complicity of the United States."

Argentina

Argentine President Javier Milei reposted on X a message from a member of his council of economic advisers, David Epstein, who hailed the killing.

"Israel eliminated one of the greatest contemporary murderers. Responsible, among others, for the cowardly attacks in #ARG," it said. "Today the world is a little freer".

Saudi Arabia

Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told the UN that "this escalation will have... negative repercussions for the entire region".

"We call upon all parties to show wisdom and to show restraint in order to avoid a true war from breaking out in the region."

Venezuela

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed solidarity with Nasrallah and Lebanon.

"They want to justify it, but to assassinate him, they attacked buildings, housing estates and killed hundreds of people. There's a word for this: crime."​

 

[Lulldapull]

Hezb is intact. Just assassination of some leaders. Iran just has to reevaluate the situation going forward. This is not a show stopper. Iran won’t back down unless the country gets invaded by the west, like all the other Muslim countries are who can’t even mumble anything publicly.

 

[Vsdoc]

The issue here is the incessant backing of Israel by the west against Iran. Iran will not relent and fight the west for its share and take. This ain’t no religious war by any stretch of the imagination. Irani mulla are hardcore Persian nationalists.

It’s Iran vs the west for the control of the region. Plain n simple.

We need to watch out for which country next Iran will take over now. Is it Sudan? Or is it Ethiopia? Or is it Bahrain? Or is it goin be Afghanistan?

Persian nationalism or Pan Persian Nationalism as its commonly called in the west, is greatly misunderstood. By Iranians as well as non Iranians, including you apparently.

How can the Mullas be Persian nationalists when many of them are not ... Persian.

Velayat e Faqih is not a Persian nationalism paradigm. Its an IR one.

This is a highly nuanced topic, dunno if it fits here on a Bangladeshi sub forum. Or what its even doing here in the first place.

Cheers, Doc

 

[Lulldapull]

Persian nationalism or Pan Persian Nationalism as its commonly called in the west, is greatly misunderstood. By Iranians as well as non Iranians, including you apparently.

How can the Mullas be Persian nationalists when many of them are not ... Persian.

Velayat e Faqih is not a Persian nationalism paradigm. Its an IR one.

This is a highly nuanced topic, dunno if it fits here on a Bangladeshi sub forum. Or what its even doing here in the first place.

Cheers, Doc

Doc I always wanted to ask you that when the shah was there for 40 odd years and they made him Arya Mehr and the most powerful man in the entire Middle East and the US favored him even more than Israel back then.

He had whatever he wanted, anything he wished for……

Even then the Iranians threw him out!

This is the real dichotomy of reason.

Iran was the most powerful and most influential back then, and lo n behold it still is the most powerful and far more influential today.

This makes no sense!

I’ve told you before…….irani pagal hain. Ain’t nothing good enough bhai…..aap kuch bhee kar lo.

Iran is a fatalist culture, just like the hillbilly.

Incidentally one hillbilly friend of mine quipped recently that Pezeshkian looks like us. How could he be Muslim?…..

 

[Vsdoc]

Doc I always wanted to ask you that when the shah was there for 40 odd years and they made him Arya Mehr and the most powerful man in the entire Middle East and the US favored him even more than Israel back then.

He had whatever he wanted, anything he wished for……

Even then the Iranians threw him out!

This is the real dichotomy of reason.

Iran was the most powerful and most influential back then, and lo n behold it still is the most powerful and far more influential today.

This makes no sense!

I’ve told you before…….irani pagal hain. Ain’t nothing good enough bhai…..aap kuch bhee kar lo.

Iran is a fatalist culture, just like the hillbilly.

Incidentally one hillbilly friend of mine quipped recently that Pezeshkian looks like us. How could he be Muslim?…..

The Shah or any other personality is not going to change Iran. The Persian people have a genetic God switch. Its happened once. It will happen again.

Iran has a history of monarchy and centralized power. Iran does empires. It does not do kingdoms, like India for example.

When Iran switches, its empire switches. Including all its satrapies. For 500 years Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Rome.

I hate to say this, because 1) I know you are Muslim, and 2) I know it will mean a great bloodletting of my own bloodlines, but I cannot shake this feeling of foreboding that is hanging over me like a dark cloud, over the last decade and a half, that a massive avenging fire, a hungry fire, is headed towards engulfing the middle east. Specifically Iran.

It will be a cataclysmic epochal event not different to Al Qadissiya.

Cheers, Doc

 

[Lulldapull]

The Shah or any other personality is not going to change Iran. The Persian people have a genetic God switch. Its happened once. It will happen again.

Iran has a history of monarchy and centralized power. Iran does empires. It does not do kingdoms, like India for example.

When Iran switches, its empire switches. Including all its satrapies. For 500 years Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Rome.

I hate to say this, because 1) I know you are Muslim, and 2) I know it will mean a great bloodletting of my own bloodlines, but I cannot shake this feeling of foreboding that is hanging over me like a dark cloud, over the last decade and a half, that a massive avenging fire, a hungry fire, is headed towards engulfing the middle east. Specifically Iran.

It will be a cataclysmic epochal event not different to Al Qadissiya.

Cheers, Doc

One thing is for sure doc…..Semitic religion is a done deal bhai.

Sub khatam!

We need to be very careful about this unfolding drama in our country or we’re going to Balkanize in short order.

Without Islam we’re not going to survive and you know it.

Our establishment is still secular and they promote this culture of religion because the alternative is Balkanization bhai.

It’s the same in most other Muslim countries and I’m telling you if it’s not promoted then theys goin be gone within a few weeks or months.

I wonder if the US is talking to Iran behind the scenes on the situ.

Iran hasn’t lost anything yet…..the war is on like donkey Kong…..no problem there, but I know that I’ve yet to meet a religious Irani person.

At their core, they’re still Zartosht…I see it. I know lots of em…..totally secular bhai, but they can’t drop the act, or the millions of proxies will all get disillusioned.

Good luck finding millions willing to give their lives for you then.

You need to understand the situation Irans always in.

If you pledge allegiance…..they’ll back you. Don’t matter your religion. It’s just been like this for almost 3 millennia.

Iran chhorray ga nahi Israel ko ab, cuz now it’s a matter of honor.

 

[TheNewb77]