The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared Saturday, and Hezbollah confirmed, that terrorist mass murderer Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an airstrike Friday evening in his headquarters deep under civilian buildings in Beirut.
As Breitbart News reported, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the airstrike from his hotel room in New York City, then addressed the United Nations General Assembly while the mission was being carried out.
Netanyahu left a press conference, apparently after being informed of the attack, in which bunker-busting bombs exploded underneath buildings in southern Beirut. Aid the devastation, Nasrallah’s death could not be confirmed.
The IDF said, tentatively, that it believe Nasrallah had been killed, together with other leaders of Hezbollah. But Iranian news sources pushed misinformation to western media outlets, saying Nasrallah was alive, safe, and well.
The Associated Press (AP) described Nasrallah as a “pragmatist,” downplaying his culpability in mass murder in Syria and elsewhere. It obscured his commitment to destroying Israel and his hatred toward America and the west.
Nasrallah, 64, rose to lead the Iranian-backed terror group as it carried out an insurgency against Israeli forces that had occupied southern Lebanon to prevent terrorists from firing rockets at communities in northern Israel. When Israel withdrew in 2000, he became a hero in the Arab and Muslim worlds. His stature increased after 2006, when Hezbollah started the Second Lebanon War and fought Israel to a draw after the international community intervened.
But Nasrallah soon became a hated figure as well, after Hezbollah joined the Syrian civil war that erupted in the Arab Spring of 2011. Hezbollah participated in atrocities against Sunni Muslims and others, as Iran propped up dictator Bashar al-Assad. Many Lebanese people, outside of Hezbollah’s narrow Shiite constituency, resented Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon, which allowed Iran to control the country and to turn it into a base for future attacks against Israel.
In its obituary for Nasrallah, the AP also completely omitted Hezbollah’s role in terror against the U.S., notably its role in the bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983, which killed 241 servicemen. It was also involved in terror and criminal enterprises worldwide, with tentacles reaching as far as Latin America and Africa, where its operatives raised and laundered money through the “blood diamonds” wars of the 1990s that horrified the world.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Saturday that Nasrallah had hidden under women and children, and declared that Israel would continue its fight against Hezbollah until it could no longer threaten northern Israel.
The Biden administration was reportedly angry about the attack. As Breitbart News noted, Israel only informed the U.S. about the attack on Nasrallah while it was already in progress, probably because Israel did not trust the Biden administration to keep its plans secret. The Biden administration was already angry at Israel’s apparent rejection of a proposed 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, believing that Netanyahu had strung the White House along to buy time.
There are several questions now: whether Israel will launch a ground invasion to destroy the rest of a shattered Hezbollah; whether Iran will intervene in Lebanon to save its terrorist proxy; and whether the people of Lebanon, plagued for so many decades by war, will be able to enjoy peace and sovereignty.
One thing is certain: one of the worst terrorists and mass murderers in the world is dead, thanks to a war he launched, unprovoked, against civilians.
Update: Following publication of this article, President Joe Biden issued a statement on the White House website in which he praised the killing of Nasrallah but reiterated his desire for a ceasefire, rather than eliminating Hezbollah:
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.
The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 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 United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my Secretary of Defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.