Department of Research, Strategic Studies and International Relations 30-09-2024

Despite the huge loss for Lebanon, the region, the Ummah, and the free world, there is no doubt that the blood of Sayyed Hassan will haunt “Israel”, and his legacy will continue to light the path of Resistance fighters worldwide.

On August 31, 1960, a boy named Hassan was born to the Nasrallah family. He was the eldest of three brothers and five sisters and was raised in the Karantina neighborhood, one of the poorest and most deprived areas in the Eastern Suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Hassan, who later on will be referred to as “Sayyed” for being a descendant of Prophet Mohammad, would grow up to change the course of West Asia’s history, daring to challenge the powers of arrogance, led by the imperialist United States and the colonialist Israeli occupation entity.

Sayyed Nasrallah completed his primary education at al-Kifah school and pursued his middle school studies in the Sin el-Fil area. When the Lebanese Civil War broke out in April 1975, his family returned to their hometown of Bazourieh, Southern Lebanon, where he pursued his high school education. Despite his young age, he was appointed as the Amal Movement’s organizational leader in the town.

During his time in southern Lebanon, he became acquainted with the Imam of the city of Tyre, Sayyed Mohammad al-Gharawi, who helped arrange his enrollment at the religious seminary in Najaf, Iraq, in late 1976.

He traveled to Najaf with a letter of introduction from al-Gharawi to Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, who showed great interest in him. Al-Sadr, who would later be tortured and martyred by the Saddam regime, entrusted Sayyed Abbas al-Mousawi, who later became Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, with the task of supervising and mentoring the new student, both academically and personally.

Lebanon, and election as Secretary-General of Hezbollah

Sayyed Hassan returned to Lebanon in 1978 due to the oppressive practices of the Ba’athist regime in Iraq and continued his studies and teaching of Islamic studies at the Imam al-Muntazar Seminary.

On February 16, 1992, the Israeli occupation forces assassinated Sayyed Abbas, along with his wife and his five-year-old son. Hezbollah’s Shura Council then convened and chose Sayyed Nasrallah as the group’s Secretary-General, despite his relatively young age compared to other council members.

He initially rejected the decision to be elected, as he was only 32 years old. However, after their insistence, he completed the remainder of Sayyed al-Mousawi’s term, which ended in 1993, and has since been re-elected several times before his martyrdom.

Hezbollah’s wise leadership believed that Sayyed Nasrallah, who possessed unique leadership qualities and a charismatic persona, and maintained strong ties with the group’s grassroots, was capable of leading Hezbollah and the Resistance during a time of highly sensitive political and security status within the country. He had a deep understanding of the developments on the ground and commanded the trust of the leadership, particularly that of Sayyed Abbas.

During Sayyed Abbas’s tenure as Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Sayyed Nasralla was often delegated to represent him at celebrations, rallies, and party meetings.

Sayyed Nasrallah revealed that he once asked Sayyed al-Mousawi why he was entrusted with such tasks, to which the latter responded, “You are qualified for this, but as for me, the issue [leading Hezbollah] will not last for long.” Though he did not fully understand those words at the time, their meaning became clear after Sayyed al-Mousawi’s assassination.

In an interview with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al Mayadeen Media Network, Ghassan Ben Jeddou, Sayyed Nasrallah recalled that the first decision he took as Secretary-General was to target Israeli settlements with Katyusha rockets, pointing out that this was the first time that the Islamic Resistance ever bombed Israeli settlements.

During Sayyed Nasrallah’s tenure as Secretary-General, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon engaged in numerous heroic confrontations with the Israeli occupation, most notably during the July 1993 Seven-Day War, the April 1996 aggression, and culminating in the historic victory of May 25, 2000, when most of Lebanon’s territories were liberated from Israeli occupation.

This was followed by the strategic and historic defeat of the Israeli military in the 2006 war. In 2012, Hezbollah also fought the takfiri terrorist threat that aimed to cripple Syria and continue toward Lebanon, managing in 2017 to liberate the common border area between the two countries in what came to be known as the Second Liberation.

May 25, 2000 liberation

“Israel” had occupied southern Lebanon in 1978, and persisted with its occupation even after its forces withdrew from Beirut in 1982, looting the region’s wealth, persecuting civilians and Resistance fighters, and torturing and killing anyone who dared to resist the occupation forces’ diktats.

Years after Hezbollah, along with other Resistance factions, put liberating Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories in mind, it engaged in fierce battles with the Israeli military and its militias of collaborators, the Lahd Army, until managing to achieve its long-awaited goal, forcing the Israelis, for the first time, to withdraw unconditionally from an occupied Arab land in what later came to be known as Liberation Day.

This victory saw the myth of the Israeli military as an invincible army shattered at the hands of the Resistance, proving that “Israel” can indeed be defeated.

During his speech in the liberated city of Bint Jbeil during the celebration that followed the historic achievement, Sayyed Hassan described “Israel” as “weaker than a spider’s web.”

2006 divine victory

This strategic victory was repeated in 2006 after fighters from the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon captured on July 12 two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation aimed at recovering detainees in occupation prisons.

Shortly after the operation, “Israel” launched a brutal 33-day aggression on Lebanon, which saw aerial, naval, and ground attacks against the Lebanese people, met with fierce resistance on the part of Hezbollah and several other Lebanese Resistance factions.

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Source: Al Mayadeen English