What does that mean? – Their God is dead: Hezbollah is threatened with organ failure

When a residential complex in a southern suburb of Beirut was engulfed by a dense fireball on Friday evening, it quickly became clear: this attack was different from normal. The craters now visible testify to uncompromising brutality. The historic seriousness became known before the thick clouds of smoke rose over Beirut.

Will Hezbollah die with Nasrallah?
Israel was able to track down the whereabouts of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and kill him – it emerged hours later. What started as a local airstrike became a thunderclap for the entire Middle East. Lebanon’s most powerful man, celebrated by his supporters as invulnerable, was buried under rubble and ash. But will the Shia militia also die with him?

Through years of infiltration and painstaking intelligence work, Israel managed to plunge the Hezbollah terrorists into chaos in just a few days. Their commanders were killed in succession, their pagers and radios blown up by the Mossad. The largest terrorist army in the Middle East was beheaded without further ado.

And the heart? A myth arose around Nasrallah. The Shia cleric wore the black turban that identified him as a ‘Sayyed’, a direct descendant of the Prophet. In some cases he was even seen as number two behind Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran trusted the leader of Hezbollah
Nasrallah was an important strategist for Tehran. He built a state within a state in Lebanon. He dissolved de facto democratic structures and institutions. Since taking over in 1992, Hezbollah has transformed from a local organization into an internationally feared terrorist militia. He set the pace for millions of people who believed in a new Islamic world order – far beyond the borders of Lebanon.

Israel’s long arm drove him into isolation. In recent years he has only appeared in public via video messages. And yet: his words fascinated the Shiite world. He was born in 1960 as the ninth of ten children of a fruit and vegetable merchant. By 2024, Nasrallah had near-divine status.

He has labeled cellphones “agents of Israel,” and his engineers have also been building a vast fiber-optic network for Hezbollah’s internal landline for more than fifteen years. His communications were intended to remain hidden. The Jewish state finally got him. According to reports, he had been living for years in Dahija, the densely populated Shiite district in southern Beirut, where Israel also suspected Hezbollah’s headquarters.

The scale of Nasrallah’s murder is enormous
The editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper “L’Orient Le Jour”, Anthony Samrani, wrote that the assassination was even more important than that of top general Soleimani in 2020 and that of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

“He was our Bin Laden times ten. For more than 30 years, he murdered our citizens while helping other terrorist organizations kill us better,” wrote Nadav Pollak, a lecturer at Israel’s Reichman University.

The “Spiegel” reports on the paralyzing paranoia now spreading within Nasrallah’s terrorist organization. The reason: Israel’s ghostly penetration of its own ranks by spies and technical espionage: “Everyone now distrusts everyone. “Who is a spy?” a Hezbollah commander reported in April.

Who will be his successor?
Now it’s about pure survival. Without a boss and after the assassination of almost the entire upper management level, it is unclear who within Hezbollah could now take command, including in the event of further attacks on Israel. Iran’s protective force is currently busy securing its own leadership.

A name for the successor is already making the rounds: Hashim Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, is considered the most promising candidate. He is a cousin of Nasrallah and father of the son-in-law of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Safieddine, now 60, is said to have been prepared for a leadership role within Hezbollah since the 1990s. According to reports in the Arab media, he was recently responsible for, among other things, financial affairs and the daily affairs of the militia.

Dark times still lie ahead for Lebanon
Nasrallah’s death creates a power vacuum in Lebanon, which has been without a president and effectively without a government for two years. There are currently no signals from Iran that the country, as Hezbollah’s main supporter, wants to close the gap.

A new power struggle between other groups in the country, which is strongly divided along religious lines, therefore seems possible. Opponents of Hezbollah may now see a unique opportunity to permanently dismantle Hezbollah’s structures within the state and restore greater government control.

There could be a major security collapse in the country, new sectarian conflicts and general chaotic conditions. The country on the Mediterranean Sea already experienced a bloody civil war from 1975 to 1990. Although Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, the terrorist militia left a clear message at the site of the impact to potential adversaries. A banner reads: “Hezbollah lives.”