The death of a martyr: Israel, the Middle East, and the need for a ceasefire in the conflict for the Lebanese

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in a post on X, said he had spoken with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday. “We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed,” Lammy said, adding that “a diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people.”

Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the killing of Nasrallah, saying it “is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East.” Moscow called on Israel to stop hostilities aimed at Lebanon.

The members of Iraq’s parliament cried on television as the news of Nasrallah’s death was announced. The lawmaker said his death would open the gates of fire against Zionism.

Makki said that Syrians were more concerned with getting them to safety at the moment, and helping them in the humanitarian sense. Nasrallah is a large individual in the region and has had a large part in politics of the Middle East.

Thousands of people have fled Lebanon in the last week because of Israeli strikes in the southern and eastern regions. And many have also been pouring over the border to neighboring Syria, Syrian journalist Danny Makki told NPR, speaking from the capital Damascus.

In the past few days, thousands of reservists have also been called up and deployed to the country’s border with Lebanon, as Hezbollah continues to trade rocket fire with Israeli ground forces using artillery and tanks.

The Israeli military said the Hezbollah leader was killed at his main headquarters underneath a residential building in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. It said Hezbollah’s acting deputy, Ali Karki, and other Hezbollah commanders were among those killed as they were planning further attacks on Israel.

It described Nasrallah as “a great martyr, a heroic, bold, brave, wise, insightful, and faithful leader,” and would remain, despite his death, “still among us with his thought, spirit, line and sacred approach.”

In Washington, President Biden in a White House statement said Nasrallah and Hezbollah “were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror.”

To highlight the attack’s potential to ignite an even wider Middle East conflict, the semiofficial Iranian news agency, Mehr, reported that an operational head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan was also killed in the strike. Iran has long financed and supported Hezbollah, while also supplying weapons and missile technology to the group.

The attack on Hezbollah’s headquarters took place just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly. An Israeli official said Netanyahu gave the greenlight to the strike before he spoke.

In his first public remarks on Friday’s attack, Netanyahu said the assassination of Nasrallah, who he described as “the architect” of a plan to “annihilate” Israel, was an “essential condition” for Israel to achieve its war goals.

In order to prepare for Hezbollah and other Iran-supported militias, the Israeli military ordered restrictions on public gatherings in central Israel.

His Majesty: The U.S., the Middle East, and the War on the Era of the Second Iraqi Suicide Truck Bombings

The groups attacks against Americans and U.S. interests include the suicide truck bombings in 1983 and 1984 in Beirut that targeted the U.S. embassy, the U.S. Marine barracks and the U.S. embassy annex. The death toll of those attacks was more than 300 Americans and Lebanese.

A U.S. congressional report says Hezbollah trained Shia militias to attack American troops in Iraq during the Iraq War.

In the Middle East, more than 500 Lebanese and over 30 Israelis have reportedly been killed in recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the report.

The 2024 annual threat assessment put out by U.S. intelligence agencies states that Hezbollah “maintains the capability to target U.S. persons and interests in the [Middle East] region, worldwide, and, to a lesser extent, in the United States.”

But many U.S. leaders have united in their support of Israel’s killing of Nasrallah for what they see an appropriate action for the longtime decision maker of an organization that killed many innocent lives.