Israel killed him in Beirut / Who was Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who created a state within a state in Lebanon

Hezbollah has confirmed the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, after Israel announced that he had been killed in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday.

The group said Nasrallah was killed after a "treacherous Zionist airstrike in the southern suburbs."

"Saget Hassan Nasrallah has joined his fellow martyrs (...) whose footsteps he led for nearly thirty years," the pro-Iranian organization announced in a statement. Hezbollah's television network Al Manar TV began broadcasting verses from the Koran after the announcement of Nasrallah's death.

On the other hand, in a post on its "X" account, the IDF declared that "Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world."

Who was Hassan Nasrallah?

Hassan Nasrallah was the leader of the Hezbollah organization and for years he was not seen in public for fear that Israel would try to kill him. His personality is closely associated with Iran, and he played a key role in transforming Hezbollah into the political and military force it is today.

Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah helped train militias in Iraq and Yemen, and bought missiles from Iran to use against Israel.

Iran has directed Hezbollah's evolution from a militia formed to fight Israeli troops occupying Lebanon into a military force stronger than the Lebanese army, a power broker in Lebanese politics, a major provider of health, education, and social services, and a key part as a supporter of Iran for regional supremacy writes BBC.

Born in 1960, Hassan Nasrallah grew up in the eastern neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud in Beirut, where his father, Abdul Karim, ran a small vegetable shop. He was the eldest of nine children.

He joined the Amal movement, then a Shiite militia, after Lebanon entered civil war in 1975.

After a brief stay in Najaf, Iraq, to ??attend a Shiite seminary, he joined Amal in Lebanon before he and others split from the group in 1982, shortly after Israel occupied Lebanon in response to attacks by Palestinian militants.

The new Amal group received significant military and organizational support from the Bekaa Valley-based Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and emerged as the most prominent and effective of the Shiite militias that would later form Hezbollah.

In 1985, Hezbollah officially announced the organization's founding by publishing an "open letter" that identified the United States and the Soviet Union as the main enemies of Islam and called for the "wiping out" of the state of Israel, which it said had invaded Muslim lands.

Nasrallah rose through the ranks of Hezbollah as the organization grew. He said that after being a fighter, he became its director in Baalbek, then in the entire Bekaa region and then in Beirut.

He became Hezbollah's leader in 1992 at the age of 32, after his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.

One of his first actions was to avenge Mousawi's murder. He ordered rocket attacks on northern Israel, but without serious consequences.

Nasrallah also had a low-intensity war with Israeli forces that ended with their withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, although he suffered a personal loss when his eldest son Hadi was killed in a clash with Israeli troops.

After the withdrawal, Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah had achieved the first Arab victory against Israel. He also vowed that Hezbollah would not disarm, saying he believed "all Lebanese territory must be returned," including the Shebaa Farms area.

It was a relatively peaceful situation until 2006, when Hezbollah militants launched a cross-border attack that killed eight Israeli soldiers and took two hostages, triggering a massive Israeli response.

Israeli warplanes bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in the southern and southern suburbs of Beirut, while Hezbollah fired about 4,000 rockets at Israel. More than 1,125 Lebanese, mostly civilians, died during the 34-day conflict, as well as 119 Israeli soldiers and 45 civilians.