Death of Hassan Nasrallah: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s military success in Lebanon washes away the failure of October 7,” says Gilles Kepel

Recent bombings by the Israeli army across Lebanon led to the death of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite group allied with Hamas at war against Israel in the Gaza Strip. For Gilles Kepel, author and specialist in the Arab world, “Benjamin Netanyahu is achieving success from a military point of view,” he explained on the set of the Grand Rendez-vous Europe 1/ CNews / Les Echoes. For him, this attack “washes away the military and personal failure of October 7 of Benjamin Netanyahu who, as Prime Minister, represents the State of Israel.”

“We are in a logic of war in all its dimensions”

“This is an attack that will go down in the annals of modern warfare,” he said. After having heavily weakened Hezbollah with the beeper attack, this ultra-targeted strike on the leader of the terrorist group shows an unprecedented escalation of events. “The military destruction of the Hezbollah apparatus is very important in geopolitical terms and has considerably weakened Iran,” explained the university professor.

According to him, the major issue remains the significant losses of civilians. “This horrible expression of ‘collateral damage’ is another consequence of these attacks. All the civilians are fleeing and people who were not from Hezbollah are being bombed. We are in a logic of war in all its dimensions with what this generates”.

The deadliest strikes since 2006

According to the UN, tens of thousands of people have fled the country in the face of this week’s violence and the wave of deadly explosions has left dozens dead. The WHO, for its part, declared that nearly 6,400 people had been injured during this week and called for “immediate de-escalation”. These strikes are the deadliest since the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

However, it seems impossible that Hezbollah will remain unanswered because although the terrorist group is without a leader, its replacement must already be ready to replace it. “Naïm Qassem, Hassan Nasrallah’s right-hand man, is not affected to my knowledge. He must therefore be the new boss of Hezbollah,” said Gilles Kepel. Another name is expected to replace the leader, and it is Hassan Nasrallah’s cousin, Hachem Safieddine who could also be a potential successor. The Shura Council, the party’s highest body, will soon elect its new leader.