BEIRUT – Armed men fired shots in the air and shut down shops in parts of Beirut and Hezbollah supporters said they were in a state of shock and disbelief on Sept 28 after the death of the Lebanese armed group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah confirmed on Sept 28 Nasrallah had been killed, issuing a statement hours after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike on the group’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sept 27.
Nasrallah’s death marked a devastating blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an intense campaign of Israeli attacks, and even as the news emerged some of the group’s supporters were desperately hoping that somehow he was still alive.
“God, I hope it’s not true. It’s a disaster if it’s true,” said Zahraa, a young woman who had been displaced overnight from Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
“He was leading us. He was everything to us. We were under his wings,” she told Reuters, tearfully by phone.
She said other displaced people around her fainted or began to scream when they received notifications on their phone of Hezbollah’s statement confirming his death.
Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah since the Shi’ite Muslim group’s previous leader was killed in an Israeli operation in 1992, was known for his televised addresses – watched carefully by both the group’s backers and its opponents.
Shots in the air, wails and disbelief in Beirut after Hezbollah head killed
