The Life of Hassan Nasrallah

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has lived a private, secret life away from the spotlight, due to the sensitivity of his position as the leader of one of the most prominent resistance movements in the region, which has been fighting the Israeli occupation since the 1980s.

Despite his secret life and his movements surrounded by strict security measures, Israel was able, on Friday, to assassinate him by striking a major Hezbollah headquarters in the southern suburb of Beirut, leaving him a “martyr” after about 32 years of assuming his position as Secretary-General of Hezbollah.

Hassan Nasrallah was the third and current Secretary-General of Hezbollah since February 16, 1992.

He assumed the position after Abbas al Musawi, who was assassinated by Israel in the same year.

During his reign, Hezbollah reached an unprecedented military capability, with major support from Iran, and now possesses advanced precision weapons that it asserts are capable of delivering painful blows to the occupying state.

Nasrallah was born in 1960 in the town of Burj Hammoud, in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, but his origins go back to the town of al Bazouriya in Tyre, a coastal town in southern Lebanon.

The upbringing of the martyr Hassan Nasrallah was characterized by a religious tendency that influenced his intellectual orientations later, as he was interested in studying the principles of religion since his childhood.

He joined al Najah School, then Sin El Fil Public School, which had a Christian majority, then completed his studies at Tyre Public School for Boys, then joined the Amal Movement, and Nasrallah was appointed as the movement’s delegate in al Bazourieh.

In Tyre, Nasrallah met the Imam of Imam Jaafar al Sadiq Mosque, Muhammad al Gharawi, who helped him go to Najaf, where he spent a period of Islamic study in the religious seminary.

There he met Abbas al Musawi, the man with whom he would later form a strong friendship and partner in founding Hezbollah.

After returning to Lebanon in 1979, Nasrallah studied and taught at the religious seminary in Baalbek, which was affiliated with Muhammad Baqir al Sadr, the founder of the Dawa movement in Najaf during the 1960s.

He later became the Amal Movement’s representative in the Beka’a, and became a member of its central political bureau.

His family life is far from the spotlight, and not much is known about it, but it’s known that he is married to Mrs. Fatima Yassin, and he has five children, Hadi, Zainab, Muhammad Jawad, Muhammad Mahdi, and Muhammad Ali.

His oldest Son, Hadi was fighter in Hezbollah, was killed in 1997 during clashes in the Jabal al Rafi area in southern Lebanon, and his body remained in custody until it was recovered in 1998 as part of an exchange deal with Israel.

After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a split occurred within the ranks of the Shiite Amal Movement, and two currents emerged: the first current led by Nabih Berri, the current Speaker of Parliament, and the other opposition current, led by Abbas al Moussawi.

As the conflict escalated, the second current split from the Amal Movement, and Hezbollah emerged for the first time.

Nasrallah co-founded Hezbollah and joined it in 1982, when he was 22 years old.

His first responsibilities were limited to mobilization and establishing military cells.

He later assumed the position of deputy head of the Beirut region, then became its head.

He later created the position of general executive officer, which Nasrallah also held, and thus became a member of the Shura Council, the highest leadership body within Hezbollah.

In 1989, he left Beirut for Qom in Iran, where he continued his religious studies.

In 1991, after the developments in the Lebanese arena and the armed conflicts between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, he returned to Lebanon, and Abbas al Moussawi was elected Secretary-General of the party and Naim Qassem as his deputy, and Nasrallah assumed his previous executive responsibilities.

After Israel assassinated Secretary-General Abbas al Moussawi via an air strike, Hassan Nasrallah was elected as his successor on February 16, 1992.

During his leadership, Hezbollah acquired long-range missiles, allowing it to target the north of Israel despite its occupation of southern Lebanon.

In 1993, Israel launched a war that lasted for seven days, and caused the destruction of most of the Lebanese infrastructure, but it failed to achieve its goals of destroying Hezbollah and its missile arsenal.

The fighting ended with an agreement between the two parties, according to which Israel would stop its attacks in Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah stopping the shelling of the northern settlements.

After heavy Israeli losses in the south, some Israeli politicians saw that the only solution to end the conflict was to withdraw from Lebanon, which is what happened in 2000, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak withdrew all occupation forces from Lebanon permanently.

In 2004, Nasrallah played a key role in a prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel, which resulted in the release of hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners, as well as the return of many bodies, including that of his son Hadi Nasrallah, who was lost in 1997.

Once again, Hezbollah achieved success and Nasrallah was widely praised for his achievements.

In 2006, against the backdrop of a kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah, under Nasrallah, entered into a war with Israel in July 2006, in which Hezbollah was able to inflict heavy losses on the Israeli army, after more than 33 days of fighting, following an Israeli ground incursion into areas in southern Lebanon.

In an interview with a Lebanese newspaper in August 2014, Nasrallah said about his way of life, “The Israelis promote the idea that I live in a shelter far from people, I don’t see them or communicate with them, and I am even cut off from my brothers… What is meant by security measures is the secrecy of movement, but this doesn’t prevent me from moving at all”.

Experts who follow him say Nasrallah has extensive knowledge, especially in religious and political affairs.

He was a charismatic and an eloquent speaker who can speak for long periods of time without hesitation or stuttering.

His passionate speeches and strong personality were factors that gained him popularity in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and his words were widely followed and received great attention.

Nasrallah and Hezbollah expressed their support for Palestinians, more the recent war in Gaza.

Nasrallah said in his statements that Hamas’ operation al Aqsa Flood is 100% Palestinian, but it has become extended to more than one front and more than one arena, stressing that his party has been involved in it from the beginning and is continuing to fight it.

Nasrallah stressed that the battle against Israel is completely legitimate, and said, “If we wanted to search for a battle with complete legitimacy, there is no battle like the fight against the Zionists”.