Martyr Sayyed Nasrallah, Lebanon's liberator, breaker of hegemony
12 Min Read
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.
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Hezbollah Secretary-General, martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. (Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail - Al Mayadeen English)
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.
Two days into the war, the Lebanese Resistance struck across the Lebanese coastline a Saar-5 Class destroyer that had taken part in the naval blockade imposed on Lebanon, shelling its towns and cities. The operation was announced by Sayyed Hassan in a voice message. He said, "Now… In the middle of the sea… Look at the warship that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes."
The war ended on August 14, 2006, after the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, which called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the Israeli occupation military and the Lebanese Resistance. It marked a moment when Hezbollah set an equation that deterred "Israel" from waging another aggression on Lebanese territory and established a more than decade-long peace for the residents of South Lebanon.
In 2008, the Winograd Commission, an Israeli government-appointed commission of inquiry, found that the 2006 war was "a serious missed opportunity" for "Israel".
"Israel initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory. A semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages," the Commission concluded in its final report submitted to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Security Minister Ehud Barak.
Offering his son as a martyr
A striking example of Sayyed Hassan's humbleness and how he considered himself and his family part of the people was the martyrdom of his son, Sayyed Hadi Nasrallah, while he was fighting against the Israeli occupation.
On September 12, 1997, Hezbollah's Resistance fighters detected a movement of Israeli occupation forces within the Jabal al-Rafi' area in Iqlim al-Tuffah.
Groups, including one led by Sayyed Hadi, entered the area to ambush the Israeli force and engaged in prolonged confrontations, killing four soldiers and inflicting numerous injuries.
The Resistance fighters successfully withdrew without casualties. But, the occupation military deployed helicopter gunships and additional ground forces, leading to further confrontations, during which Sayyed Hadi sustained two injuries to his waist and neck.
The Israeli occupation forces captured Sayyed Hadi's body and that of martyrs Haitham Mughniyeh and Ali Kawtharani.
In June 1998, martyr Sayyed Hadi's body was retrieved from the occupied Palestinian territories as part of a prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation entity.
Support Front for Gaza and its Resistance
A day after "Israel" waged its still ongoing war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah, under Sayyed Hassan's leadership, launched its operations against Israeli targets in occupied territories in support of Gaza and its Resistance, linking the end of its strikes to the end of the Israeli aggression on the besieged enclave. The Lebanese group's attacks emptied settlements in northern occupied Palestine along the border with Lebanon and displaced nearly 100,000 Israeli settlers, frightened to return under Hezbollah's fire.
On September 25, 2024, Hezbollah announced that its Resistance fighters launched a Qader-1 ballistic missile targeting the Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, marking a first.
According to the group's statement, the HQ was responsible for the assassination of Resistance leaders and the waves of pagers and walkie-talkies explosions, which killed dozens and injured thousands of people across Lebanon.
The attack was unprecedented, as it marked the first time the Lebanese Resistance group targeted Tel Aviv suburbs with a missile, cementing "the strike for strike" and "Tel Aviv for Beirut" equation.
Joining his fellow leaders to martyrdom
Three days later, Hezbollah released a statement announcing the martyrdom of its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, joining a handful of Resistance leaders who dedicated their lives for the sake of fighting against the Israeli occupation.
"Israel" had earlier launched a series of heavy airstrikes on residential neighborhoods in the Southern Suburb of Beirut. The IOF announced that the goal of the attack was the assassination of Sayyed Hassan, and Israeli Army Radio pointed out that F-35 aircraft carried out the airstrikes using bunker-buster bombs.
The Islamic Resistance began its statement with the verse: Let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, and then is slain, or he subdues [the enemy], soon We shall give him a great reward. [Surah al-Nisa', verse 74]
"His eminence, the leader of the Resistance, the pious servant of God, has passed on to God as a great leader, a brave martyr, joining the martyrs of Karbala...on the path of prophets," the statement read.
"Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, joined his great, eternal companions, whose journey he led for over 30 years through victory after victory" after succeeding Sayyed Abbas al-Mousawi in 1992, leading them in "the liberation of Lebanon in 2000 and the Divine Victory of 2006," and up to the battle of support for Palestine and the oppressed people of Palestine.
Hezbollah extended its condolences to the Islamic nation and the steadfast people of Lebanon, and all the free and oppressed people of the world, congratulating Sayyed Hassan on achieving the greatest of divine gifts, through which he was granted his greatest wish, that of a martyr on the path to Palestine and al-Quds.
The Islamic Resistance also congratulated his fellow martyrs who joined him in martyrdom following the Israeli aggression on the Southern Suburb of Beirut.
In the statement, Hezbollah's leadership promised Sayyed Nasrallah, "our greatest, holiest, and most beloved leader in our path filled with martyrs and sacrifice, to continue its struggle against the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its honorable, resilient people."
The Islamic Resistance concluded its statement by addressing the freedom fighters of the Resistance, "you who were his trusted shield...our leader the Sayyed still lives among us through his thought, spirit, and his holy path."
"We will not abandon Palestine, its people, and the sanctities of the Ummah there."
"We will pray in al-Quds, I am sure of that."
These statements by Sayyed Hassan, which will remain engraved in the minds of millions, demonstrate the martyr's endless dedication to Palestine and the liberation of the occupied lands.
Despite this grave 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 that his legacy will continue to light the path of Resistance fighters worldwide.
Read more: A towering figure: Palestinian factions mourn Sayyed Nasrallah
