Hassan Nasrallah: Hezbollah chief leaves behind a sullied legacy

Lebanon’s Hezbollah announced on Saturday that its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in a massive Israeli strike on the southern suburb of Beirut the day before.

Born in 1960, Nasrallah joined Hezbollah in 1982, the year it was formed with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to fight against Israeli forces invading Lebanon.

Known as a dedicated student of Shia Islam, he quickly rose through the ranks and became the third secretary-general of the group in 1992 when his predecessor Abbas Musawi was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike.

He gained a reputation as a skilled orator and strategist, turning Hezbollah into an effective fighting force with Iranian assistance and leading it to a major victory in 2000, when Israel withdrew from the ‘security zone’ it had occupied in southern Lebanon since 1978.

The 2000 victory helped turn Hezbollah into a regional power and gained it widespread popularity.

Millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa tuned in to hear Nasrallah’s fiery and defiant speeches, which offered hope to an Arab world which had long been humiliated by Israel.

Nasrallah’s reputation was further cemented by the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, which began after Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid into Israel in an attempt to take soldiers captive to exchange for Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.

His address to the nation at the start of that war gained particular prominence as he announced live on air the targeting and drowning of an Israeli war ship which had hit Beirut.

Israel launched devastating air raids against Lebanon, accompanied by a ground invasion, but was unable to gain the upper hand against Hezbollah and agreed to a ceasefire after 34 days of fighting.

Hezbollah’s ability to resist Israel was widely seen as a victory in the Arab world and Nasrallah gained a reputation as a leader who could deliver results.

Two years after the war, Israel agreed to exchange Hezbollah and other prisoners for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers which Hezbollah had captured.

However, Hezbollah lost its standing in the Arab World after the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions. Hezbollah’s patron Iran backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Nasrallah followed the Iranian line, sending fighters to Syria to take part in Assad’s brutal suppression of the Syrian uprising.

Hezbollah fighters imposed sieges on opposition-held Syrian towns and cities, such as Madaya in 2015, where dozens of civilians, including children, died of malnutrition and hunger.

Nasrallah’s backing of Assad lost him most of the support he once enjoyed and his claims that his movement was still engaged in “resistance” to Israel now rang hollow.

In addition, Hezbollah’s behaviour in Lebanon, where it acted unilaterally often without regard to the Lebanese state, alienated many Lebanese citizens, particularly during the 2019 anti-corruption protests, when Hezbollah members clashed with demonstrators.

While Hezbollah and the Assad regime had largely succeeded in suppressing the Syrian uprising – with help from Russia and Iran - by the time the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, the movement appeared to have overstretched itself and was no longer capable of confronting Israel in the way it previously did.

The cross-border strikes Hezbollah launched in support of Hamas during the Gaza war were limited in their effect, and Israel’s attack on the group’s leadership and members using exploding pager devices dealt a severe blow to Hezbollah’s prestige.

While it remains to be seen whether Hezbollah can regroup and mount an effective resistance to Israel’s escalating attack on Lebanon, Nasrallah’s death has for now dealt a severe blow to a group which lost its effectiveness and credibility in the Arab World many years ago.