Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah delivers an address, Feb. 16, 2023. Credit: Al-Manar TV via MEMRI.
Slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah fell into depression in the wake of Israel’s elimination of Fuad Shukr and the so-called Operation Grim Beeper that took thousands of Hezbollah fighters out of action in two days in September, Jawad Nasrallah, the son of the Shi’ite terror master, was quoted as saying in an interview on Sunday.
“My father became depressed after the assassination of Fuad Shukr. And after the beeper operation, everyone who met him said he is no longer with us,” Nasrallah’s son told the Lebanese television program, Panorama Today.
Shukr, a senior commander in the Iranian-backed terrorist group and one of its founding members, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on July 30, 2024.
The beeper operation, carried out covertly by Israel, injured thousands of Hezbollah operatives in a series of simultaneous explosions of handheld pagers and walkie-talkies in two separate events on Sep. 17-18, 2024.
The heavy blows that the Jewish state exacted on Hezbollah caused “difficult feelings” for Nasrallah personally and harmed the morale of the group’s fighters, added Jawad, who is Nasrallah’s second-eldest son.
“On Sept. 27, 2024, at 6:21 p.m. and as part of ‘Operation New Order,’ the IDF eliminated Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terror group—as well as Ali Karaki, commander of the [terrorist group’s] Southern Front, and other senior commanders—in Hezbollah’s underground headquarters in Beirut, along with additional military infrastructure, during several simultaneous strikes,” the Israeli military said recently alongside newly released footage of the Sept. 27 airstrike.
The Israeli Air Force reportedly dropped at least a dozen 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Nasrallah’s bunker. Two unnamed Israeli officials told The New York Times that more than 80 bombs were dropped over the span of minutes as part of the operation.
A week later, a strike on a bunker in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district killed Hashem Safieddine—a maternal cousin of Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council and a leading candidate to replace him.
The funeral of the late Hezbollah figureheads took place last week in Beirut, about five months after their killing. Thousands of Hezbollah supporters assembled at Beirut’s main sports stadium for the funeral ceremony as Israeli Air Force fighter jets flew low over Beirut.
“The IAF jets that are now circling in the skies over Beirut over Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral are conveying a clear message: Whoever threatens to destroy Israel and attacks Israel—that will be their end,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
“You will specialize in funerals—and we will specialize in victories,” he added.
Source: JNS
