Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hassan Nasrallah is known to the world via his speeches, which are recorded and broadcast
00:04from a secret location.
00:06This is his speech on the 19th of September, in which he said Israel had gone beyond red
00:10lines with the explosions of Hezbollah pager and walkie-talkie devices.
00:16It's a massacre, a major aggression against Lebanon, its people and its resistance and
00:22its security.
00:24It could be a massacre, a war crime or a declaration of war.
00:30Nasrallah was elected Secretary General of Hezbollah in 1992, aged just 32.
00:37He took up the role after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor.
00:43Born in the Beirut suburbs, he was one of nine children and studied politics and the
00:47Koran for three years at a seminary in Iraq.
00:50He then became involved in Lebanese politics and gained much of his early experience in
00:54the Shiite Amal militia during Lebanon's civil war.
00:59His standing grew among his supporters and across the Arab world after Israel withdrew
01:03its troops from south Lebanon under Hezbollah attack in May 2000, ending 22 years of occupation
01:09off the border strip.
01:11His popularity increased further with supporters after a UN-brokered ceasefire ended the 2006
01:18conflict with Israel, before suffering a blow when he sent fighters to neighboring
01:22Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the war there.
01:28His critics say Hezbollah's regional adventurism has imposed an unbearable price on Lebanon
01:34and say he is one of the leaders responsible for the country's political and economic crises.
01:40After the 7th of October 2023 attack by Hamas into Israel, Hezbollah announced the opening
01:45of the south Lebanon front.
01:47A series of assassinations of senior Hezbollah military leaders took place.
01:51The events took a critical new turn with the Pager and Walkie-Talkie bombings, that along
01:56with airstrikes across southern Lebanon, opened all possibilities in the conflict.