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‘Extremely hard for resistance supporters to accept Nasrallah assassination’
Military analyst Elijah Magnier says that following the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “became the non-declared leader of the Axis of Resistance”.
The term refers to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. “He acquired a large knowledge of the capability of all the members but also knew how to deal with the Iranians and how to be an organic part of Iran,” Magnier noted.
“But at the same time, allow the interests of Lebanon to prevail over any other interests – keeping in mind his focus was on Palestine and fighting the United States hegemony in the Middle East.
“For that, he gained a lot of popularity and it is going to be extremely hard for the people of Lebanon who believe in the resistance to accept this assassination and the news of his death, because there is no other leader of the same charisma – not the leadership but the charisma – that Nasrallah enjoyed in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East among those who supported the resistance.”
Israel on high alert following claimed killing of Nasrallah
Israel is on high alert for a wider conflict after it claimed to have killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in Beirut, but hopes his death will cause Hezbollah to change course, a military spokesperson has said.
“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” Nadav Shoshani said during a media briefing. “We’ve seen Hezbollah carry out attacks against us for a year. It’s safe to assume that they are going to continue carrying out their attacks against us or try to,” he said.
Israeli claim that it does not intentionally target civilians is ‘nonsense’
The claim by Israeli officials that the army is not intentionally targeting civilians but instead carrying out precise strikes on Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon is “nonsense”, Mohamad Elmasry, an analyst at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, has told Al Jazeera.
The Dahiyeh doctrine, named after Beirut’s southern suburb that Israel hit in its 2006 war, calls for the deliberate targeting of civilians to create deterrence against Hezbollah.
“The role of the Israeli military is not only to eliminate Hezbollah leaders, but to punish civilians,” Elmasry said. “This military doctrine has been quite clearly enacted in Lebanon and in Gaza.”
Israeli media published the “100:1 ratio” describing the army doctrine according to which it was acceptable to kill 100 civilians in Gaza for one Hamas commander.
“This is a great violation of the principles of proportionality and distinction in international law,” Elmasry said. “I think Israel will ultimately be found guilty of genocide, however, the question is whether this will have an impact.”
“Will European powers and the United States enforce this and arrest Israeli leaders?” he added. “I have my doubts.”
