Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli airstrike

By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College A picture of the secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah is seen among the rubble following an Israeli air strike. Str-/picture alliance via Getty Images Israel has killed the leader of the militant group Hezbollah in a airstrike in Beirut, marking a further escalation of hostilities in the region. The death of Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed by Hezbollah on Sept 28, 2024, forms part of a major Israeli push against the Iran-backed group in recent days that has resulted in the death of several top leaders – but also killed hundreds of civilians and left many more fleeing Lebanon’s south in fear of a ground invasion. But what is Hezbollah? What exactly is its role in Lebanon? And how big a blow is Nasrallah’s death? The Conversation turned to Mireille Rebeiz, a Lebanon expert at Dickinson College who is writing her second book on Hezbollah, to help explain. What is Hezbollah? And what role does it play in Lebanon? Hezbollah, which means “party of God” in Arabic, was born during the Lebanese Civil War after Israel’s invasion and occupation of Lebanon in 1982. Officially, the group came into existence in 1985 with the publication of a manifesto...