Breaking news While Hezbollah mulls response to leader’s killing, Israel’s next steps matter most.(CNN NEWS)_
From CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh
Now that Hezbollah has confirmed the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the next 72 hours will likely see the group’s commanders assessing who is left, how safe it is to communicate and meet, and exactly what level of pain tolerance it retains as it tries to formulate a response.
But while the world awaits Hezbollah’s — and Iran’s — next move, it is Israel’s next steps that matter most.
The country has shown that it has the intelligence advantage, military might and tolerance for international condemnation of civilian casualties to continue to strike at will. But this risks turning a fortnight of brutal strikes into another longer-term loss to Israeli prestige.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a defining choice to make. Does the past fortnight salvage his domestic reputation for security and leave him better placed to face the music of the cases against him? Or does he again calculate that an ongoing war without clear strategic direction is his best way forward?
Ultimately a wider field of vision must win out. Lebanon’s civilians — and its southern neighbors — need political accommodation and a ceasefire now, regardless of what it means for the fate of Israel’s current political elite.
Read Nick Paton Walsh’s full analysis here.
Breaking news While Hezbollah mulls response to leader’s killing, Israel’s next steps matter most.(CNN NEWS)_
Gunfire heard across Beirut to mourn Nasrallah.
From CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi and Jomana Karadsheh
Gunfire erupted in Beirut after Hezbollah announced the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah — a gesture to mark martyrdom, believed by Muslims to be one of the highest honors in Islam.
Many Hezbollah supporters were initially skeptical after Israel announced Nasrallah’s death earlier.
Moments before Hezbollah announced Nasrallah’s death, a woman and a man told CNN they expected the group’s leader to “surprise us all with an appearance.”
“He’s not in Lebanon. I know in my heart he isn’t,” said one elderly Shia woman in a black chador, smiling.
Less than five minutes later, the announcement of his death came. “He was martyred,” she kept repeating as she pressed her face against a wall, fumbling to keep herself standing.
“This is the biggest crisis of all,” she said.
A man trying to console her said that “martyrdom was what he wanted … and it’s what he received.”
Another woman broke down crying as she recited verses from the Quran with tears streaming down her face.
In the Dahiyeh neighborhood of southern Beirut, where Nasrallah was killed by Israel, loud chants of: “We submit to you, Nasrallah,” and “We will never accept humiliation,” were heard.
Here’s who could succeed Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s next leader
After Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s death, it’s not entirely clear who’s next in line to succeed him as the militant group’s chief, particularly because Israel has killed several levels of its hierarchy.
CNN’s Ben Wedeman says there are two possibilities: Nasrallah’s deputy Naim Qassem or senior official Hashem Safieddine.
“But at this point, given the body blows that Hezbollah has received going back to July 30, when Fu’ad Shukr was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut in an Israeli drone strike, what we’re seeing is that the organization is clearly reeling at the moment. And perhaps their priority at the moment is surviving — those who are still alive — surviving to carry on to fight another day,” Wedeman says.
