‘He was like a father to us’: Hezbollah supporters mourn Hassan Nasrallah | Israel-Lebanon attacks News

Beirut, Lebanon – On Friday evening, Mariam* was in her apartment with her daughter and her mother when her building started to rumble and shake. Painful screams and the buzzing of Israeli warplanes soon followed.

Israel had just launched an airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and an unknown number of civilians in Dahiyeh, a suburb south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Shortly after the strike, Israel asked thousands of residents to “evacuate” Dahiyeh, saying they live near Hezbollah operational centers.

Mariam quickly packed several bags of clothes and fled to downtown Beirut, where she now sleeps on the steps of a mosque along with hundreds of other displaced people from her neighborhood.

But while Israel praised his life, he said that nothing compares to the grief of losing Nasrallah.

“When I first heard these stories, I thought they were fake. I thought, ‘It can’t be true’,” she told Al Jazeera, holding back tears. “Nasrallah was my brother and we always felt safe with him. Now, we don’t know what will be our fate.”

My brother, my father

Nasrallah became Hezbollah’s leader after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Al-Musawi, his wife and five-year-old son were killed in an airstrike in their home.

When Nasrallah took power, he quickly began expanding Hezbollah from a rebel organization to one of the world’s most powerful armed groups and a formidable bulwark against Israeli aggression.

Under his leadership, Hezbollah liberated southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation for 18 years, giving him the status of a hero throughout the region.

His beauty and intelligence made him one of the most respected – and feared – leaders in the Middle East.

He then became a contender – in Lebanon and the regions – after Hezbollah intervened in Syria’s civil war to rescue President Bashar al-Assad from a pro-democracy uprising that quickly turned into armed conflict after al-Assad’s forces opened fire on protesters. , which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

Throughout the war, the Syrian government and Hezbollah committed atrocities, according to media reports and rights groups.

The reports damaged Nasrallah’s popularity throughout the region but his loyal supporters stood by him fearing that no one else would be able or willing to defend Lebanon from Israel.

Many Lebanese Shia Muslims are now mourning the man they called “brother” and even “father” to their people.

In downtown Beirut, displaced families from Dahiyeh described Nasrallah as a “martyr” who gave his life to stand up to Israel.

“I want to listen to his voice again. He was like a father to us. He was not just a politician,” said Nivine, a Hezbollah supporter and a resident of Dahiyeh displaced by the strikes.

“But we will continue [Nasrallah’s path]. We will continue to fight to overthrow Israel, which has always been his wish,” he told Al Jazeera.

Lack of protection?

With Nasrallah gone and Hezbollah reeling from the loss of dozens of senior leaders in recent days, many Lebanese Shia Muslims fear they have no one to protect them.

“Don’t you see all the transgressions of Israel? They bombed and destroyed everything, killing women and children. And no Arab or Western country intervenes to stop it,” said Nivine.

But Nivine, like other residents of Dahiyeh, believes that Hezbollah will ultimately survive the latest attacks from Israel.

Hassan, 25, spoke the truth about Nasrallah and the “resistance” – a term that often refers to Hezbollah and other armed groups allied with Iran that oppose Israel and the US role in the region.

“We will continue and the movement will continue. People will be martyred, but [the resistance] it will continue,” he told Al Jazeera.

Hassan added that he was very saddened by Nasrallah’s death because he was a great symbol of disrespect. In his view, Nasrallah is the only world leader who helped the Palestinians in Gaza by opening a “support platform” against Israel from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its aim was to reduce pressure on Hamas, which is fighting for survival after an Israeli attack in the south on October 7, which killed 1,139 people.

Israel responded by attacking Gaza, killing more than 40,000 people since October.

Nasrallah’s decision to support Hamas cost him his life.

“He represented Gaza,” Hassan said as he resigned from the steps of the mosque. “I know he is dead. But now he is in a better place than the rest of us.”

An uncertain future

Mohamad, who is of Syrian descent and has lived in Lebanon since 2009, said he fled from southern Lebanon to Dahiyeh after Israel and Hezbollah began firing on October 8, 2023.

He said the busy place welcomed him, his daughter and his wife to the community as they had just arrived.

Nasrallah also mourned.

‘I was shocked when I heard the news. We will remember him as the one who stood up to the Zionists and went to war with Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.

But now that he is gone, there is fear and uncertainty. We don’t know what will happen. Will there be more bombings now across Beirut? Will the situation get worse? Or will it stop? Neither knows.”

Mariam, who fled with her mother and daughter, expressed conflict over her life and the fate of Lebanon. Everything he loved was torn apart by the Israeli bombing of Dahiyeh 24 hours ago, he said.

He mourns the loss of a place that holds a lifetime of memories – good and bad. He also mourned the loss of several friends, many of whom were killed in Israeli strikes, and others who are still missing. But like many in his community, he said Nasrallah’s death was hard news to swallow.

“We felt safe when he was here with us,” she said, her eyes filled with tears. “Now, we don’t know if we will be safe again.”