Hassan Nasrallah

 Hassan Nasrallah (Arabic: حسن نصر الله [ħasan nasˤrɑɫɫɑh]; born August 31, 1960) is a Lebanese cleric who serves as the secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political and militant organization.

Born in 1960 to a Shia family in the suburbs of Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah completed his education in Tyre, where he briefly joined the Amal Movement. He then pursued studies at a Shia seminary in Baalbek and later taught at an Amal-affiliated school. Nasrallah became involved with Hezbollah, a group formed in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. After a period of religious study in Iran, he returned to Lebanon and assumed leadership of Hezbollah in 1992, following the assassination of his predecessor in an Israeli airstrike.

Under Hassan Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired longer-range rockets, enabling them to strike northern Israel. Israel's heavy casualties during its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon led to its withdrawal in 2000, significantly boosting Hezbollah's popularity and influence within Lebanon. However, Hezbollah faced local and regional criticism for its role in ambushing an Israeli border patrol prior to the 2006 Lebanon War. During the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah aligned with the Syrian army, with Nasrallah framing the conflict as a fight against "Islamist extremists."

On September 27, 2024, an IDF spokesperson announced that the Israeli Air Force had targeted Hezbollah's main headquarters in Beirut in an attempt to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah. A source affiliated with Hezbollah initially told Reuters that Nasrallah was alive, while Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported that he was safe. A senior Iranian security official also informed Reuters that Iran was in the process of confirming his condition. Meanwhile, Israeli sources suggested that they believed Nasrallah may have been killed in the airstrike.