OCTOBER 3 • 2024 | 39
J
N

A

s the anniversary of 
Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre 
approached, Israel 
assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the 
head of Hezbollah, in an airstrike 
in Beirut on Friday, Sept. 27. Since 
joining the war in support of Hamas 
a day after the Oct. 7 massacre, 
Hezbollah has fired more than 9,500 
rockets, missiles and drones at Israel 
causing the evacuation of upwards 
of 70,000 of Israeli residents.
IDF International Spokesperson 
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said, “We 
hope this will change Hezbollah’s 
actions. Hezbollah has started this 
war on Oct. 8. They have been firing 
at us ever since. And we have been 
looking for solutions, looking for 
change in reality, that will bring our 
civilians home [to northern Israel].”
For three decades, Nasrallah was 
one of the most powerful leaders 
in the Middle East. As the head of 
Hezbollah, he led the best-equipped 
terror group threatening Israel and 
the region’s largest Iranian proxy, 
with control of southern Lebanon 
and a reach that spanned the globe. 
The development marks an 
enormous strategic achievement for 
Israel. Under Nasrallah’s leadership, 
Hezbollah transformed into a 
formidable force, going from terror 
organization to terror army, and 
carrying out attacks across Israel 
and the world.
In a statement on Saturday, 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu said Nasrallah was “not 
just another terrorist, he was the 
terrorist.”
Netanyahu added that the 
assassination, reportedly carried out 
as the prime minister gave a speech 
in New York to the United Nations 
General Assembly, could presage 
more conflict in the days ahead.
“The elimination of Nasrallah is a 
necessary condition in achieving the 
objectives we have set: Returning 

the residents of the north safely 
to their homes and changing the 
balance of power in the region for 
years,” Netanyahu said.
The unprecedented series of 
blows delivered by the Israel 
Defense Forces to Hezbollah’s 
leadership and arsenal has severely 
harmed the Iranian-backed terror 
army’s ability to attack.
Recent airstrikes have not only 
taken out almost the whole of 
Hezbollah’s command structure but 
have also strategically crippled its 
ability to fire rockets and missiles, 
reducing its planned mass barrages 
to much smaller attacks. 
Hezbollah has long menaced 
Israel, including since Nasrallah, 
who was 64, took the reins of the 
group in 1992. Hezbollah was 
founded in the 1980s to combat 
Israel’s occupation of southern 
Lebanon, where it also killed 
hundreds of American troops.
The two sides fought a monthlong 
war in 2006 that ended with 
Hezbollah retaining control of much 
of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah 
also played a significant role in 

helping Bashar Assad survive the 
Syrian civil war beginning in 2011.
It has also killed Israelis and 
Jews far from the Middle East. It 
was behind the 1994 bombing of 
the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos 
Aires, which killed 85 people, as 
well as a 2012 attack on Israeli 
tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria that 
killed six.
IDF’s Shoshani said, “Nasrallah 
was one of the world’s strongest and 
most influential terrorists … and he 
was a real threat with the blood of 
thousands of people on his hands. 
“Under his leadership, Lebanon 
became an armed base with 
advanced precision weapons of 
various ranges aimed at Israel and 
in the entire region.”
The IDF has confirmed that 
alongside Nasrallah, numerous 
other senior Hezbollah leaders have 
been killed, further dismantling 
the group’s ability to function 
effectively. When Israel’s airstrikes 
in recent weeks are taken together, 
the toll on Hezbollah’s command 
structure appears to be catastrophic 
for the terror organization.

U.S. LEADERS REACT
TO NASRALLAH’S DEATH
President Joe Biden on Saturday 
praised Israel’s targeted killing of 
Nasrallah, saying the development 
had brought justice to his thousands 
of victims.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the 
terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, 
were responsible for killing 
hundreds of Americans over a four-
decade reign of terror. His death 
from an Israeli airstrike is a measure 
of justice for his many victims, 
including thousands of Americans, 
Israelis and Lebanese civilians,” he 
said.
“The strike that killed Nasrallah 
took place in the broader context of 
the conflict that began with Hamas’ 
massacre on Oct. 7, 2023. Nasrallah, 
the next day, made the fateful 
decision to join hands with Hamas 
and open what he called a ‘northern 
front’ against Israel,” the statement 
continued.
Speaker of the House of 
Representatives Mike Johnson 
(R-La.) also released a statement 
on Saturday praising Nasrallah’s 
assassination.
“Hassan Nasrallah’s reign of 
bloodshed, oppression and terror 
has been brought to an end. A 
puppet of the Iranian regime, he 
was one of the most brutal terrorists 
on the planet, and a coward who 
hid behind women and children 
to carry out his attacks,” read the 
statement, co-authored with House 
Majority Leader Steve Scalise 
(R-La.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik 
(R-N.Y.).
“Thanks to the brave men and 
women of the Israeli military, justice 
was delivered for Israeli victims of 
his heinous crimes, their families 
and the United States. 
“The world is better off without 
him,” the statement continued. 

Bypassers and rescuers gather near the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli 
airstrike in the Haret Hreik municipality in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, on 
Sept. 27, 2024. 

IBRAHIM AMRO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES/JNS

Israel Kills Hezbollah Terror Chief

BEN SALES, JTA, AND YAAKOV LAPPIN, JNS 

ERETZ

